Heaven in This Choice
by Wylis
Summary: Sequel to "The Choice": Sookie may have chosen her true love, but things in Bon Temps are rarely ever quiet for long. This time Eric and Sookie will have to fight The Authority and Russell Edgington if they want to get to the Happily in their Ever After!
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: **__Hi! So, I've never written a sequel before, but I think I kinda fell in love with this Eric and Sookie and I didn't want to send them off into their HEA just yet. This story picks up about a week after "The Choice", so E&S are at the beginning of their relationship still but committed and in love- nothing will to change that, you have my word!_

_On a side note, if you're reading "the Peace Offering" you already know, but I'm leaving on vacation for 10 days on Saturday and whether we'll have internet where we're going is iffy. If I'm unable to post until I get back I promise to make it up with a few chapters at the ready! _

_Okay I'll just say a HUGE thank you to my beta, Sheknitsnicely, we finished one story and we're flying into the fire again! I LOVE YOU!_

_**Disclaimer: **__We all know I don't own them, but I'm thinking of suing AB for the custody of Eric and Sookie on the grounds of child abuse. I submit the end of season 4 as evidence!_

"Oh my God, that feels so good! Where on Earth did you learn to do that?" I ask, near breathless, between my moans. Eric just laughs quietly and keeps rubbing the ball of my foot with his thumb, like he's done nothing but spent the last thousand years practicing this one move.

"I spent some time in China in the 1800s and picked up a few acupressure techniques." He responds. I lift my head to give him a raised eyebrow.

"You studied relaxation techniques in China?" I ask, in disbelief. Sometimes the realization that Eric is lifetimes older than me really hits me hard. Again Eric just smiles, but I see his fangs run down a little.

"No, I was learning how to better torture people, but pleasure and pain are two sides of the same coin, so you pick up skills in one and it tends to…bleed into the other." Oy, I'm not sure what the proper response is to that. Sometimes the realization that Eric is a lifetimes older than me _murderer_ really hits me hard.

"Alright, Dr. Evil, just keep rubbing!" I command, in a 'the tiny human is the boss here' kind of way. What else is there to do? I'm a telepathic part Fairy waitress, in love and bonded to a thousand year old Viking Vampire who recently recovered from a bout of witch induced amnesia. The boat to normal sailed out of my life a long time ago!

"Yes, ma'am!" Eric replies, going back to his task with single minded effort.

As Eric pretty much makes love to my foot with his hands, I just lie back and try to process everything that's happened in so short a time.

Two weeks ago my life was a wreck: I'd lost a year of my life, my friends and family had given me up for dead, my house had been sold out from under me by my brother, and I was alone and scared.

Then I saw Eric running shirtless and shoeless down the old dirt road to my house. He'd been cursed, lost his memory, and he was alone and scared too. Even though we weren't even friends at that point, after everything that had happened before, something called to me in that moment and against every instinct I had at the time (no matter how wrong they turned out to be) I couldn't leave him there. He needed me and, despite my constant and loud claims to the contrary, I think I needed him too.

We'd been on a whirlwind adventure since then, one that brought us together and nearly tore us apart after we'd only just found each other. I'd learned who my real friends were and who they were not and I'd fallen deeply, irrevocably and completely in love with Eric Northman. The best part though: he'd fallen for me in exactly the same way.

Which is how I ended up here, down in the re-decorated cubby, naked as the day I was born, on the soft new bed with my head at the bottom, propped in my hands, and my foot in Eric's equally naked lap as he sits at the head of the bed, attempting to give me an orgasm just by touching my foot. If he succeeds, which is looking more and more likely, it will be my…oh hell, I lost count again, but we're definitely over six tonight already.

I'd come home at sunset after an afternoon shift at the bar only to be ambushed, thrown over Eric's shoulder and dragged down to the cubby, where my Viking honey all but tore off my clothes and made love to me like the house was on fire, for hours.

He'd done everything there was to do to me: licked, caressed, tongued and bitten every part of my body and then turned me over and did it again, before driving himself inside of me, hard and needing, and taking me, over and over again, sometimes in ways that I'd never imagined possible.

When I'd finally begged him for rest, he'd laid me down, picked up my sore and aching feet and began the message that still hadn't ended, and which I was beginning to hope might last all night long, or (looking at him sitting there all naked and magnificent and already half hard again) until I was ready for another round.

"Mmm." I sigh as he lifts my foot to his mouth, kissing the arch, letting his tongue dart out and swipe softly along the skin before putting it down and picking up the other one.

"What time is it?" Eric asks suddenly, reaching over to the night stand for his cell phone without stopping the circles he's making into my heel. Eric looks down at the display and then frowns. "It's nearly nine-thirty." He says darkly, as though the cell phone has somehow done it on purpose.

"What's wrong?" I ask, lifting up onto my elbow. I can feel his frustration and dissatisfaction thrumming through our bond, and I hate that something has made him feel this way after the wonderful bubble of contentment that seemed to be encapsulating us only moments before.

"I got a text from Bill at sunset. I have to go to Fangtasia again tonight." He says, scowling, and I can't help but join him.

It's not that Eric doesn't love going to his bar. As much as I've never been a fan of the place, it's his baby. It's the first business he's ever gotten to own openly, since all of his others were bought or started before Vampires came out of the coffin, and he loves it. It's _why _he's going that has us both frustrated and on the edge of anger.

Using the need to rebuild Louisiana after most of the Vampires were scared away during the witch war, dear King Bill has been inundating Eric with work, most of it busy work and all of it pretty much pointless, but things he demands Eric get done on short notice so that he'll have no choice but to rush to do them and, in essence, be forced to sacrifice time he would otherwise be spending with me.

If you ever thought that living for centuries on end would cure someone of their childishness, you'd be wrong. Bill is not-quite-living proof that an almost two hundred year old 'man' can still act like a bratty preschooler who's had their ice cream taken away by another child.

Bill can use whatever excuse he wants, but all three of us know that he's doing this because he's still hurt that I chose Eric over him. It's also possible he's maybe a little bit angry too, since I told him that I could never love him again, even if he were the last man on earth, that I'd kill him (for good) if he ever tried to hurt my man again and that I then lost control and shot him with my hand-light thingies and nearly set him on fire. And now he's using his position as King to get a little "Office Space style" pay back.

Eric drops my foot and the cell phone and begins to crawl over me on his hands and knees, until I'm caged under a naked and wanting Vampire whose eyes are like blue flames. Bending down, he takes my mouth with his in a rough kiss, his tongue pushing between my lips to taste me as I curl my own around his sharp fangs, playing with them and teasing them until I've robbed him of all his control and good intentions.

As we kiss, I feel Eric lowering his entire body onto mine, so that my breasts, which suddenly feel full and heavy, ache for his hands and mouth to fondle them, even as I rub my nipples desperately into the soft golden hair on his chest, and my thighs part to welcome the weight of his hips and cradle the velvety steel of his erection.

Eric leaves my mouth to trail kisses along my jaw and down my throat and I feel his hips start to move, his rock hard cock parting my folds and beginning to rub up and down my suddenly dripping slit, making me feel hot and needy all over again, as though he hadn't already spent the hours since sunset sating me in every way.

I throw my arms around Eric's back, holding tight to the hard plains of his shoulder blades as I feel him find my entrance and push in slowly. Eric is so much bigger than I ever even imagined a man could be but he's never, ever hurt me with his size. Despite the fact that he is, in many ways, his old self again (in all the best ways actually) when we're in bed he always reminds me the most of his amnesia self: loving me wildly, with abandon and without shame, but always taking care to make sure that he brings me nothing but pleasure.

"Can never get enough of you." He whispers into my neck, in between rough kisses, as he thrusts in and out of me in a steady, drugging rhythm that already has me beyond words. "Can never have enough of your sweet skin, your delicious moans, your tight, hot, amazing, addicting pussy. Need you so much, I can barely think of anything else. I want to stay like this all night, every night! Need to love you, fuck you, make you come, until you can't take me anymore!" Eric lets his dark words spill out in a rush as he moves faster and faster, his hips forcing his cock into me at just the right angle to make me go flying one more time tonight.

As I'm crying out incoherently, I hear Eric roar into the mattress beneath me and feel his cool seed bathe my insides, jetting into me over and over again, giving me the undeniable proof of his need for me, his love.

After a minute or two, he rises and leaves the room, quickly returning with a warm wash cloth. Cleaning my nearly comatose body gently, he picks me up and repositions me the right way on the bed, bringing the warm goose down quilt up over my shoulders and kissing my eyes, my nose and my lips before pulling away.

"Sleep, lover. You've had a long day. I'll be back before sunrise." He reassures me, petting my hair gently. I nod sleepily, but when he's about to pull away I grab his hand.

"Will you wake me when you get back?" I ask, suddenly feeling vulnerable. I hate when he leaves me.

I've never been a clingy woman. My Gran didn't raise me to be a needy little Mrs. who can't think or breathe or function without her man, but the truth is that I'm not quite over the fact that I nearly watched him burn to death a week ago. Nor am I over the fact that his being taken, chained to a giant pile of wood and set on fire, was directly orchestrated by his boss, my jealous and possibly unstable ex-boyfriend.

It's not that I can't function without Eric. It's that, every time we're apart, I'm worried that something might happen to him, that he'll be killed and I'll never see him again. It might seem silly to worry about a thousand year old Vampire who's been an ass kicking, no prisoners taking, leader of men since his Human days as a Viking Warrior Prince, but trust me, you see the man you love about to go up faster than a Roman candle and I promise you it will do frightening things to your objectivity.

"Of course." He answers me, his eyes going soft and gooey and his mouth breaking into that smile that I've come to think of as "amnesia Eric's smile". It's so open and pure and innocent and it's filled to bursting with love and devotion, only for me.

"Thank you honey." I answer him back with a sleepy smile of my own. "…love you so much." I say, finally giving in and ending on a yawn. I hear more than see Eric's tender smile as he brushes his lips over my now closed eyes.

"Not anywhere close to how much I love you, little Fairy." He whispers right at my ear, before he's gone.

~*S*~

The next thing I'm aware of is the sound of someone pounding on my back door hard enough to break it down and screaming my name over and over again. The sound sleep I'd fallen into is all but forgotten as I bolt upright, throwing off the covers and throwing on the wife beater Eric wore last night and left on the floor before we went to bed at dawn. I race upstairs, terrified that it's Eric and too panic stricken to consider the fact that if it_ was_ Eric, he wouldn't be pounding on the door; he'd just use his key.

When I finally make it to the kitchen, taking what feels like an eternity but was probably only a minute flat, I see Bill on the other side of the door, frantically scraping at it. He knows well and good that he can't get in here anymore without an invitation and so he's all but clawing at the door as he begs one.

"Sookie please, please let me in!" He says, his voice panicked, looking behind him every second word or so as though he's expecting monsters to come out of the trees, something that isn't entirely impossible actually.

"Bill, what's going on?" I ask through the door, curious but not yet ready to let him into my house after what he did not a week ago.

"Please Sookie, it's the Authority: they're after me. They've sentenced me to death. My guards held them off long enough for me to escape but they'll be following me soon!" It's not that I'm completely coldhearted, but, after everything Bill has done to me, I can't believe that he just expects me to save his butt again, and that he's come over here like a chicken with its head cut off and brought his problem to my door.

"Bill, if they're after you then run! Don't bring your shit here!" I say, ready to turn away. Maybe I am that cold, I don't know, but I don't want to be involved in this. I told Bill to leave me alone and I meant it. After what he did to Eric, and to me, I don't owe him anything anymore and I'm not getting involved out of the goodness of my heart. I'm just about to go back to bed when Bill says the one thing he knows will get him what he wants.

"They're after Eric too! If you have any hope of saving him, you need to know what I know. Now let me in!" He demands. If he says anything after that I don't hear him. I'm too taken over by my nearly overwhelming sense of doom. As happy as we've been this last week, I've had this horrible feeling that we were just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Apparently, there is always another shoe in our life.

"Bill Compton, come in." I barely hear myself say. Bill races into the house and bolts the door behind him as though the metal lock will be any kind of deterrent to whoever wants him.

"Thank you Sookie. I'm most grateful." Bill tells me, but I just hold up my hand, stopping him from saying anything more.

"Tell me what's going on and who's after Eric." I grind out in my most commanding tone. Bill gives me one sad, lonesome look that actually irritates me enough to want to slap him, even in the dire situation we're suddenly in, and then he starts doing something useful.

"An enforcer from the Authority showed up tonight with some of her men. She had two warrants: one for my true death and one for Eric's. She also had orders to apprehend you. Apparently, between organizing a state wide media cover up and getting her head lopped off by Eric, Nan had time to inform the Authority that you might have some interesting talents." Oh Lord! Oh sweet baby Jesus, this is bad!

Not bothering to acknowledge Bill, since I don't care what else he might have to say, I run over to the house phone that's mounted on the kitchen wall and call Fangtasia. It rings three times and then I hear Ginger on the other end, telling me I've reached the bar with a bite. Behind her seem to be all the normal sounds of the club: loud music, the clinking of glasses and the hum of a large group of people chattering away all at once.

"Ginger, it's Sookie. Is Eric there? I need to speak to him?" I say all in a rush.

"Oh hi Sugar. He sure is, he's in his office, hang on a second and I'll transfer…." Ginger doesn't get to finish that statement. Over the line I suddenly hear the sounds of screaming, things crashing to the floor and then what sounds like growling, all before the line goes dead.

"Ginger! GINGER!" I pull the phone frantically away from my ear and scream into the hand set, but it doesn't change the fact that there isn't anyone on the other end. Not knowing what to do, I dial again and get a busy signal.

Panic takes me by full force now and I run into the living room, grab my cell phone off the coffee table and dial Eric's cell number. It doesn't even ring, it goes straight to voicemail. Screaming, I throw the useless piece of plastic onto the couch and dart for my old room to put on underwear and jeans so I can go out and find him. When I come back out of my room I go for my shoes at the back door and nearly have them in my hands when Bill pulls me back.

"Sookie, what are you doing? You can't go out there. The only thing protecting you from those Vampires is the fact that they can't get in here!" Bill has me caged around the middle by his arms, my back pressed up against his front, and when I start to kick and scream, he hauls me off the ground and throws me into one of the kitchen chairs. "You are NOT leaving. I won't let you risk your life needlessly." He says in a sanctimonious tone. I'm nearly blazing with anger at this point and I can feel my hands firing up, getting ready to blast him across another room, when I see something glowing in the yard.

Forgetting about Bill for a moment, I walk to the kitchen sink and lean as far over as I can, looking out the window, straining to see through the dark.

"Bill, does the Authority have werewolves?" Bill makes a superior sounding, snorting noise at my question, no doubt offended by my ignorance.

"No. Never. Vampires and Werewolves don't mix. Russell Edgington was the only Vampire I have ever known to consort with dogs. Why?" I don't even look at Bill as I answer him, my heart feeling as though it's pounding out of my chest.

"Because there are wolves in the tree line."


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N:**__ Hi! I'm back from the great beyond! I really enjoyed my vaca, but man am I glad to be back in the land of internet accessibility! I think I can say that I made good use of my 'black out' time though since I have this one and two more chapters written and ready to go! I'll be posting them throughout the week!_

_Okay so just thank you everyone who read, reviewed, alerted and favorite the first chapter! Y'all rock my socks! And thank you to my wonderful, fabulous, amazing beta, Sheknitsnicely, who pulled another ninja act and got all three chapters ready for me today!_

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own them, currently Alan Ball does, but I've engaged the services of a very reputable Demon lawyer in preparation for my custody suit who promises me I'll either win or he'll curse Mr. Ball with exploding hemorrhoids ! _

I don't think I'm going out too far on this limb when I say that Bill Compton is my very own cosmic bad luck charm. He's the umbrella that pops open while you're still in the house. He's the black tom that scampers across you're path as you're walking up the driveway in the dark. He's the mirror in those cheap compacts that's pretty much already broken before you pay for it!

Before Bill, my life was quiet. No one had ever tried to kill me, shoot me, cut me, kidnap me, drain me, or possess me. Then Mr. 'salt shaker with the top loose' walks into Merlotte's and suddenly serial killers and religious nut jobs want me dead, Maenads want to use me as their own personal message board, crazy Vampire monarchs are fighting over me like the last bottle of sunblock in the middle of August and psychotic, centuries dead, disembodied witches are trying to rent me like a room at the Holiday Inn.

"Sookie." my own personal harbinger of doom and dismay says, taking my upper arms in his hands and turning me from the eyes in the woods. "We must stay in the house."

Bill emphasizes his point by taking my chin in his hand and tilting my head the short distance to meet his, making me look him in the eye. I know that Bill is speaking sense, but right now sense and rationality are the farthest things from my mind. Eric is in danger, he's out there; I can't…I _won't_ just abandon him to keep myself safe.

"Bill, Eric needs me. I have to find him!" I say softly, looking up into his eyes with what I hope is a wide, pleading stare. It's probably lower than dirt to use Bill's feelings for me as a weapon, but if it gets me out that door and to Eric any faster I'll do it.

"Sweetheart, I know it's in your very nature to try to protect those you care about, but Eric is a thousand years old. He's strong, devious, calculating and deadly. He can take care of himself and, no doubt, Pam is with him should he need help. If he could right now, he would tell you to keep yourself safe and you're safest here, Sookie. I promise that I will not let anything or anyone harm you." Bill says it all with a warm, genuine smile as the hand that was holding my chin moves to cup my face, the thumb gently stroking my cheek.

It's actually a little revolting, him touching me like that, but before I can pull away or make any kind of response I feel something deep within me. My heart starts to race and my body feels like it's thrumming with energy. It's Eric tapping into our bond. The first thing I feel from him is a deep sense of worry and I know he's trying to tell if I'm both safe and unharmed. I try as hard as I can, through our connection of blood and emotions, to tell him that I'm alright but that I'm also desperately worried about him.

Eric gives me the mental equivalent of a reassuring hug when he feels my anxiety and I can almost see him smiling down on me, his eyes wide, warm and blue as my favorite lock of hair flops into his face. Eric sends me something that feels like remorse for having worried me, but it's immediately followed by a strong wave of caution and as much as I hate to admit it, it seems that Bill is right: Eric wants me to stay put. I feel better about it though, when the distance between us starts to lessen and I know, based on how quickly it's evaporating, that he's flying home to me as fast as he can.

I can't help the huge smile of relief and happiness that breaks across my face when I realize this. I'm so happy to know that Eric is safe that I only dimly notice that Bill is still petting my face and has somehow managed to get an arm around me too, and so I'm pretty much completely surprised when I say the only thing that has any significance to me at the moment and find that I'm practically shouting it into Bill's mouth.

"Eric is alright! He's coming!" I gush, my voice filled with my joy and relief.

My words have the same effect on Bill as a bucket of ice cold water over the head and he immediately releases me and takes a giant step back, the gentle expression falling from his face only to be replaced by one of hurt anger. I feel as though I _should_ feel slightly bad for having accidentally misled him, but honestly I don't. Bill must know by now that I will never want him touch me so intimately or for so long again and he should just be happy that I didn't do anything more permanent to get him off of me.

"Indeed. How fortuitous of Eric to have given you back your house when he did." Bill comments dryly. It seems that, whenever Bill is wounded, he reverts to hurtful words as his defense mechanism du jour. I got a taste of just how barbed his tongue can be the last time I told him, in no uncertain terms, that I would never take him back, but it still hurts to hear the man I once loved trying to cause me pain.

"Bill, don't start." I reply tartly. "I told you before not to talk bad about Eric to me and I meant it. I didn't have to let you in and I can rescind your invitation anytime, so don't push me." The threat is harshly said, but even I wonder if it's believable. Bill didn't just rush here because it was the closest 'invite necessary' house. He knows me well enough to know that, even as things stand between us, I'm not the kind of person to turn my back on someone in need.

Considering that I'm a fairly honest person I'll admit that, no matter how very much I love him now, the only reason that Eric didn't fry in the sun, handcuffed to Russell Edgington, or end up homeless on top of cursed with amnesia, is because I don't turn my back on people, even when they do pretty bad stuff to me. So Bill probably already knows that, short of trying to kill one of us (again), he's not getting kicked out.

Whether my compassionate nature is a strength or a fault remains to be seen, but one way or the other I'm not engaging in another argument with him over whether or not Eric is the right man for me. I know it, and Bill doesn't have the right to hear all the reasons why.

Which is why, after reminding him of the ground rules, I simply walk off into the living room, leaving him standing in the kitchen to brood instead of telling him that I don't actually own the house now, at least not the way he's suggesting. The house belongs to Eric and me both.

As I sit on the sofa, waiting impatiently for Eric to come back, I can still see Bill in the kitchen, staring down the gleaming eyes at the edge of my property, and I have one of those moments where you realize that there were signs along the road that were telling you something was broke all along, if only you'd stopped for even a single second to pay some attention.

I never really gave much thought to the fact that Bill never once offered to help me while we were together. I knew that he was better off than I was, although seeing his house as it is now I'm guessing that I couldn't even imagine the number of zeros in his bank account, and I'm just beginning to realize how much of his life he kept me in the dark about. But I was raised never to take charity from anyone and so it never bothered me when he just sat back and watched as I worked myself to the point of breaking to make ends meet. It never bothered me that he allowed me to rent my telepathy out to Eric, not just for Lafayette's freedom, but for a new driveway too. It never struck me as strange that he didn't even offer to help me fix my house after Maryanne destroyed it, even though he knew there was absolutely no way I could afford to do even a quarter of what needed doing to make this place barely livable again.

If I'd given it a passing thought at the time, I know I would have defended Bill by saying that he was respecting my ability to take care of myself like any modern, independent woman. I would have stubbornly resisted any notion that, even as the man who had proposed marriage to me, he had any responsibility to help me financially when I couldn't help myself. I would have fought the notion that he was falling short even though I knew that, were our situations reversed, I would have done anything I could to help him, be it working more to give him money or just picking up a hammer and some nails and doing it myself. Knowing what I know now, I realize it's more probable that he never offered because, love me as he claims he did and still does, he had no interest in helping me and he knew I would never have the presumption to ask.

It's just further proof that he wouldn't understand why I didn't sign the papers that would have made this house solely mine again when Eric put them in front of me. How could I possibly explain to Bill that Eric had offered me the house outright, had even tried to push me into to taking it. We've only been together two weeks and for half that time he had no memory of his life before running down a dirt road, but that night we'd had our first real argument, and it wasn't the poor little Human begging for her family home back and the evil Vampire sheriff cruelly refusing.

At one point, Eric had actually demanded that I sign the papers, stalking over to stand tall and imposing over me, looking down on me with fierce eyes as I'd seen him do to so many people in the past. Even though I didn't like him trying to bully me, I knew that it was probably the first time Eric Northman had ever used his considerable talents in intimidation to get someone to do something that had absolutely no benefit for him.

High handed: yes. Infuriating: yes. Deeply, touchingly sweet in a weird and warped kind of way: also yes. But knowing that he was trying to do something for no other reason than he thought it was what was best for me, helped me regain my temper.

I knew that Eric had been truly trying to keep his promise that nothing between us would change now that he'd gotten his memory back, but I suppose that we were both on a steep learning curve in terms of being in a functional relationship (since Eric had never had a relationship before and my only other one couldn't be classified as functional even if you stepped way back, tilted your head to the side and squinted at it real hard) so knowing that he wanted me to have the house back and not knowing what else to do when met with the brick wall of my stubbornness, Eric just fell back on what always got him results.

Instead of falling back on my own go to reaction and turning what was meant as a loving gesture into a knockdown, drag out trailer trash yelling match, I walked over to my imposing, intimidating mountain of a Vampire and wrapped my arms around him, kissing that sinful spot where his tee shirt rode low enough to show me the sexy, defined line that separated the muscles of his chest, and looked up at him with all the affection and love I had.

I'd asked him to look around the house and I'd looked at it too. I told him how I remembered it looking after Maryanne had destroyed it. I saw again the dirt and filth and blood that had caked the walls and floors. I saw the rooms destroyed, remembered Gran's handmade pillows and quilts rent into millions of tiny pieces. I saw my family photos and heir looms smashed to bits in shards on the floor, and then I blinked and it was beautiful again. It was beautiful the way that Eric had made it…for me, and I told him that I couldn't sign those papers because it wasn't just my house anymore.

Eric had loved it and cared for it and kept it when Jason would have sold it to the highest bidder. He'd been as good and kind to it as he would have been to me (if I'd ever given him the chance). It belonged to us both, the way we belonged to each other.

When I'd explained that that was why I wouldn't sign the papers, all the fight went out of him too and it was like a light bulb went on over his head. I knew there were probably plenty of women in Eric's past who'd wanted him as much for what he could give them as for his physical beauty, but I don't think anyone had ever actually given Eric something before. The knowledge that I was refusing because I wanted, honestly and truly, to share everything I had with him seemed to melt something deep inside of Eric. I could feel it through our bond going warm and soft and it was followed by the most intense wave of devotion I'd ever felt from him.

Suddenly Eric's arms were around me too, strapping me to his body, his hands grabbing fistfuls of whatever part of me they could reach and his face going to the crook of my neck, kissing and licking and gently biting my skin in a show of completely Vampiric adoration. We'd made love right then and there on the kitchen floor, Eric sitting on the cold floor and bringing me to straddle his lap, wrapping his arms around me, moving me up and down on him slowly as he showered me with kisses and caresses, whispering his awe that I was actually his as he brought me to one earth shattering release after another.

After the soul restoring and seemingly endless make up sex, we'd let the subject drop for a day or two, but I'd been sent for another loop when Eric had come home the night before last with an entire Fed ex box of paperwork from his lawyer: a two hundred acre farm on an island off the coast of Sweden, a condo in Paris, a penthouse in New York City, a plantation in the Caribbean and two houses in Shreveport, along with the redone deed to my house.

All I had to do was put my name on the blank lines at the bottom of each packet and everything that Eric had would be mine as well. I'd signed the papers to my farm house, but the rest were still lying in the box on the coffee table, untouched. I'd begged off, feeling overwhelmed by the gesture that Eric was making and, instead of arguing with me again, Eric had kissed me softly and told me to take my time. They would be there waiting when I was ready to accept them.

Looking at them now, after having had my little epiphany about my relationship with Bill, I suddenly understand that even though, on paper, it might look like Eric is giving me more, the truth is that if I sign these papers he'll be giving me exactly what I gave to him: everything he has to offer.

In the short time we've been together, I've already committed myself more fully to him than I ever imagined possible. I've given Eric my heart and accepted his in return, I've given Eric my blood and accepted his in return, I've given Eric my life and accepted his in return. I've consented and gone through with our blood bond, a connection that's more binding and irrevocable than marriage, and I haven't for a moment hesitated or regretted any of it. After taking a step like that, should a few pieces of wood or brick scattered around the world really feel like a bigger deal?

I know that, whether or not I sign those papers, Eric will always respect me. He will never ask me or pressure me to stop working, he will never take to showering me with meaningless and insulting gifts that would make me feel like a gold digger or a kept mistress. But I will be making him happy, I will be showing him that I understand the magnitude of the commitment we've entered into and that I want it as much as he does. In sharing everything he has, the way I've shared what little I have, I would be showing him that I accept the life he's offering me at his side. He wants to make us equal because he doesn't want a mistress or a pet. He wants me as his...wife.

Looking at Bill one more time and then at the paperwork on the table, I take the pen that's lying next to it and begin putting my name on each blank line, right next to where Eric has already signed. If we get out of this new mess alive, I want to accept the tangible proof of his love that he's offering me, because this is what people who are committed to each other should do: they don't watch the person they supposedly love struggling just to survive, they share everything with each other, even when they don't have to, even when it isn't expected of them.

I finish putting my name on the last line when I hear the hard thumping noise of something landing on the roof and the wolves in the tree line, who've been doing nothing but watching and waiting for the last hour, threatening attack but never actually coming any closer, start to bay and howl in the most blood chilling way.

Rushing up the stairs, I throw open the picture window in my Gran's room and call out to Eric. He walks the length of the roof and then lowers himself to hover just outside. What I see when he finally comes into my view is terrifying. He's carrying Pam, who's feeding greedily off his wrist as deep, horrible wounds on her stomach, hands and face start to heal themselves in front of me and both of them are covered in blood and gore, their once beautiful and expensive clothes practically torn off, scratched to rags by what look like huge claws.

Eric steps in the window and gently lowers Pam to the ground. Once he's sure that she's able to stand on her own, he tells her gently to go clean up. Then he turns the full magnitude of his attention on me, his eyes bright and blazing as he takes me in with a deep, drilling stare.

For a moment we just stand there looking at each other, Eric going over every millimeter of my body with his much more sensitive Vampire eyes, assessing me for even the most minute damage, and me trying to see underneath the blood and gore to find out if there are any actual wounds on him or if he's simply covered in someone else's insides.

We seem to realize that we're both okay, although me more than him in my opinion, at the same time and, despite the fact that Eric is absolutely covered in ick, I don't hesitate to throw myself into his arms when he opens them.

Eric holds me close to him with one arm and pets my hair roughly with the hand of the other. Through our bond I can feel the most potent of his worry draining out of him. Whatever happened tonight, he was terrified that it had happened here as well and, just as he used his eyes to assure himself that I was alright a moment ago, he now uses his hands to prove the point to himself.

For myself, I could care less what's covering him as long as it didn't come out of him and I bury my face in his chest, breathing deep, trying to unearth the unique and drugging scent that belongs only to him through the haze of yucky, cooling innards that try to mask it.

We stand like that for a long time before I hear the sound of footsteps behind me. Turning, from what I've come to think of as 'my spot' on Eric's chest, I see Bill standing in the doorway to my Gran's room, the look of angry jealousy that paints his face making him appear ugly and almost frightening.

The sound of two pairs of fangs snicking down at once pulls me from my happy place and I push away from Eric slightly, trying to get between the two of them before my Gran's bedroom ends up a pile of broken glass and shredded bedding again.

"What is he doing here?" Eric bellows, his emotions careening from relief and contentment to angry, possessive rage in less time than it takes his Corvette to go from zero to sixty. I hold up my hands and beg Eric with my eyes for patience, sending him wave after wave of calm through our bond, hoping to influence him even slightly, before his protective instincts overwhelm us both.

"Bill came here about an hour ago. He says the Authority is after all of us. I invited him in because we're all in danger." Eric makes a low growling sound that Bill returns and again I feel panicky that they're going to try and destroy my house in a fit of male possessive bull shit.

Feeling my exasperation at Bill (for having the gall to still think that he has any claim to anything from me besides asylum) and at Eric (for letting his lower brain functions get the better of him when we're in full on crisis mode here) overtaking my anxiety over our situation, I pin them both with a withering stare.

"People are trying to kill us again! Y'all need to stop measuring your 'you know whats' and start coming up with a plan to live through this!" Looking at Bill one more time, angriest at him for bringing his shit to my door and for bringing his delusional inability to let go with it, I let myself be just that tiny bit childish, even though I know we've got more important stuff we should be doing right now.

"And for the record, since I've seen them both, Eric's is bigger." With that, I storm back downstairs and wait for the ancient little boys in my bedroom to stop pissing on each other and follow me.


	3. Chapter 3

_**A/N: **__Hi, I was going to post this tomorrow, but it's ready now so why wait, right? So I guess I should say that Sookie and Eric kinda hijacked this chapter and the next one too. They really, really like having sex and they basically told me outright that they wouldn't be kicking any bad guy butt unless I lined the path with lemons. So really it's all there fault!_

_Also I have to thank two very awesome people! My wonderful friend Chipndalegal for inspiring me to keep writing this Eric and Sookie and my awesome beta Sheknitsnicely for hopping right on board for another round with me even though this story and the one that came before it were never supposed to be! So I love you both so much!_

_Big thank you's too to everyone who's been reading, reviewing, favoriting and alerting!_

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own them, Alan Ball does (for the moment), and I've flatly refused his offers of money and favors to settle out of court! This is about principle!_

When Eric and Bill finally manage to put their dicks back in their pants, they come down the stairs, Bill looking as though he's sucking on a big old lemon and Eric, smirking slightly, too happy at my last comment to worry much that I'm also slightly pissed at him. Considering that we've got a whole bunch of bigger problems right now though, he's probably going to get away with it and he knows it.

When we're all in the living room I decide to start, since I'm the only one who's really completely in the dark.

"Eric, what happened?" I ask, my voice steady but my eyes going watery again when I see how much gunk and gore he's still covered in. Eric returns my soft look for a single second and then his face becomes stony and serious and he's back to his devious and calculating Vampire sheriff persona, ready to face whatever fight is coming our way.

"Russell Edgington has escaped from the concrete and he had his wolves attack Fangtasia tonight." Eric answers me, his voice angry and bitter sounding.

"I told you we should have let that little fucker fry!" Pam interjects, walking into the living room wrapped in Eric's bathrobe and looking much cleaner and healthier than she was only a few minutes ago. Eric levels Pam with an icy stare and she immediately zips her lips.

"Yes, Pam, so you've said, _more than once_ in the last hour. Since I did not, you should probably do as all those self-help columns you read so incessantly suggest, and find a way to move past your anger. Edgington is a threat once more; right now that's enough to deal with."

"How do you know it was Russell?" Bill asks. Eric's eyes narrow once more as they settle on Bill, but he answers the question.

"I saw him. He was watching everything from the roof of the building across the street. He didn't engage us though. He could have killed us all but he didn't. He was baiting me, letting his wolves make the attack and letting us tear them apart." I can hear the anger in Eric's voice and I know that it's directed at himself. He might have shut Pam down just now, but deep down he knows she's right: he should have killed Russell when he had the chance.

"Was anyone hurt?" I ask, realizing that a bunch of wolves tearing through Fangtasia must have caused a great deal of carnage if my rapidly healing, immortal Vampires showed up in the state they're in. Eric remains stone faced but Pam gives me a disgusted look.

"Several of the vermin were injured, no one was killed, but it will still be bad for business." Sighing, I just turn back to her maker. Pam and I have managed to reach some sort of time sharing agreement when it comes to Eric, but we're definitely not ready to join that book club together and cry tears of shared emotional catharsis over deconstructions of Mitch Albom novels. Which is why I don't even bother to try to explain to her that I'm not interested in the effect of tonight's attack on Fangtasia's receipts.

"That's what happened at Fangtasia, now what's Compton doing in our house?" Eric spits, pointing a finger at Bill as though he's a mangy, filthy stray I've let inside after Eric told me I could only feed it on the porch. I try to concentrate on the fact that we're apparently being hit by a double whammy shit storm and not the warm fuzzy feeling that's enveloping me as I realize that Eric just called it 'our' house for the very first time.

"I received a visit from an Authority enforcer tonight." Bill starts in, face sour as ever. "She brought warrants for both of our deaths with her as well as one that assumes possession of Sookie once you've been disposed of. She claims that your handling of the Russell Edgington affair and mine of the witch war have made us both liabilities. But, in truth, I think they've figured out what Sookie is and they want an excuse to take her." I can feel my panic rising to an all-out alarm level and I realize that I'm feeling so much of it because it's not all mine.

On the outside Eric is all stoic, un-phased and stony, but on the inside he's bubbling over with a nearly toxic combination of terror and barely restrained anger and I know it's all for me. If either Russell or the Authority manages to get the better of us, they'll kill Eric, probably slowly and terribly, but they'll kill him. Me they'll keep and what they'll do to me… I'm sure I don't want to find out.

Oddly enough, my worry is the exact opposite. I'm filled with absolute fear for him. Eric is brave and strong and smart, but right now the odds feel like they're pretty badly stacked against us. I don't want to be a prisoner to any of these creatures, but I don't want to lose the man I love even more. I know in this moment I have two choices: let the weight of all this bad crash down on me and crumble to the ground in tears or do what my Gran would have done and tell fate to step out of the Stackhouse woman's way or accept the consequences. Being that I have no intention of letting anyone take Eric away from me, I guess I'm going with option two.

"Alright, so what are we going to do? Cause it looks we're all in this one together, whether we want to be or not!" I ask, looking around at our unlikely band of allies. If you'd have told me three weeks ago that Bill and Eric or Pam and I would ever be joining forces to fight the bad guys I would have laughed in your face, but here we are.

"We need to turn one of these situations to our advantage." Eric says, matter-of-factly. Pam and Bill nod and apparently it seems that's something we can all agree on. "First things first though. As it seems we're under siege in this house, for the foreseeable future, we need to find day time protection for all of us, but especially for you, Sookie."

Eric's right. We might be safe from the Vampires in this equation because the house is invite only again, but if the wolves outside decide they're done playing and actually attack there isn't any magical barrier or time of day restriction stopping them. If they make their move while it's light out, no one in the room now will be awake to help me.

"I can see if Alcide would be willing to come." I volunteer. Eric nods at me, his eyes telling me that he was thinking the same thing and that he's proud of me for being on my toes. We've been partners through one crisis already so I know that Eric values my mind just as much as he does the rest of me, but it's still nice to be reminded of it.

"Tell him to bring as many of his pack as he can. Tell him I'll pay to hire them as body guards for you and the house for as long as is necessary." I nod and grab my cell phone from where I flung it between the couch cushions earlier. It's the middle of the night, but Alcide picks up on the second ring.

"Sookie, you okay?" Alcide asks anxiously, without even a hello first. It's nice to know that, after everything that's happened, I still have a friend in him.

"Hi Alcide, I'm sorry to bother you, but actually no, not really. We've got some big problems over here. Eric asked me to call you and see if you could bring as many of your pack mates with you as possible. He said that he'd be willing to hire y'all as bodyguards if you can." I hear the sounds of Alcide rustling around on the other end and then what sounds like him shifting the phone around and getting dressed.

"When do you need me?" He asks, without even a moment's hesitation. I smile in relief and notice an identical look cross Eric's face. He might not like Alcide, for all sorts of reasons, but he knows that Alcide will keep me safe when he can't.

"Can you come just before dawn?" I ask. Alcide tells me that he can. "Thanks, I'll tell you everything when you get here, but be careful and make sure you tell anybody that comes with you to be careful too. There are wolves out in my woods." Alcide makes a deep growling noise at that.

"Don't worry about us Sookie, we can handle ourselves." He replies, with a healthy dose of testosterone laden machismo.

"I know you can. Thanks again, truly!" I say, before we hang up.

"Good." Eric says, moving brusquely onto our next issue. "Bill, who did the Authority send to carry out our sentences? Maybe they can be bought or bribed or, though more unlikely, reasoned with." Eric might be a thousand year old Viking, skilled at hacking and slicing his enemies into a million tiny little pieces, but he didn't survive all these centuries on brute strength alone. It's the people who underestimate his intelligence and cunning that usually die the fastest.

"Ilina Olenska." Bill answers simply. It's clear from his tone that he doesn't know anything more about her than her name and possibly her reputation, but crystal clear from the sudden turmoil in our bond that Eric knows a great deal about her. Again, Eric's face betrays nothing, but I can feel the absolute churning of emotion within him, all of it dark and the majority of it unhappy.

"Sookie, give me your phone." Eric says, holding out his hand. Eric's murky emotions in relation to this woman set off an absolute storm of worry and insecurity in me but I don't hesitate to do as he asks. Eric takes his phone out of his pocket and I can see right away why it went straight to voicemail. It's falling into about a million pieces in his hand as he picks the cracked bits of the back apart gingerly and takes out the still intact SIM card. Taking the SIM out of mine, he replaces it with his own and then scrolls through the displays.

Eric paces the living room as he makes several different short calls attempting to find a phone number for this Ilina person. When he finally gets it, he stops dead in the center of the living room as he dials and waits for her to pick up. Being Human, I can only hear his part of the conversation but it doesn't give me any clues as to why this woman is causing such a deeply negative reaction in him.

"Ilina, it's Eric Northman." He pauses to hear her reply and then keeps going.

"King Bill tells me that you're looking for me." Again, there's a short reply on the other end.

"I would like to meet with you, to negotiate a pardon for myself and for him, as well as a revocation of the warrant for my bonded." This time there's a longer answer from her. Eric listens intently and then drops the news that he hopes will give us some kind of leverage.

"Russell Edgington is alive. He attacked Fangtasia publically tonight with a bunch of 'V'd' up Weres. Humans were damaged in the altercation. I will take care of him if you give me what I want." The laughter on the other end is quite audible, even to me, and I can see the sinking looks on Pam and Bill's faces when they think that Eric's bid to gain us at least one reprieve has failed, but then Ilina says something else and Eric closes his eyes, blowing out an unnecessary puff of air.

"Hummingbird lane, Bon Temps. It's right across the cemetery from Bill's estate." With that Eric hangs up.

"Well?" I ask, knowing I'm once again the only one who doesn't know what's going on. Bill, Pam and Eric all look at me and I see the annoyance on both Pam and Bill's faces that Eric will have to waste time recounting the conversation because of my inferior sense of hearing, and a look I can't quite describe from Eric. It comes with a jumble of emotions that seem to resolve themselves into a feeling of contentment that's directed straight at me. It's very outside the spectrum of expected reactions for our current situation and it makes me even more trepidatious about this Ilina person and how Eric knows her.

"She agreed to talk. She'll come to the house at first dark tomorrow." Eric says simply. After that, Eric sends Pam and Bill to each of the upstairs bedrooms. It's not ideal but Eric's had light tight shutters and blackout curtains put on each of the windows in the bedrooms. In a pinch those rooms should be a fairly safe place for a Vampire to hole up for the day. I know it's probably beneath Pam to go to rest in my shabby little house, but considering that Bill used to sleep in a dirt hole underneath his floor boards, I better not hear even a peep of complaint outta him.

"Sookie, you should get some more rest while you can." Eric says, holding out his hand to me. I want to protest that I can't with guests in the house (my southern upbringing seems to kick in at the strangest moments: "Oh, Vampires and Werewolves are trying to slaughter us again, can I get you an extra pillow?") but I know that Eric is right. I only got a few hours of sleep at the most before Bill woke me up and, if I'm going to be awake all day with Alcide and probably the majority of tomorrow night as well, I shouldn't look the gift of a few more hours of rest in the mouth.

Leaving Bill and Pam to their own devices, Eric takes me into the bathroom, strips me and then himself and turns on the hot water before putting us both under the spray. Under normal circumstances, there would be a great deal of things happening in this shower that had nothing to do with getting clean, but right now Eric and I are both on emotional overload and so we mostly just hold each other, our arms wrapped tight around each other's middles, our hands gently running up and down each other's backs as we watch the water swirl into the drain until it runs clear again instead of red.

"Everything will be alright." Eric says, after what feels like an eternity under the warm spray. I just nod my head, the motion rubbing my cheek into the hard plains of his chest.

"I know it will." I whisper back softly, and even though that's probably the standard reaction to a statement like that, I really, really mean it. I know Eric can feel the strength of my conviction and I feel his curiosity even as he voices it.

"How do you know, lover?" He asks, his hands coming to rest on the small of my back, pressing me into him, his fingers grazing up and down the swells of my bottom. I respond by nuzzling my face into him again and kissing my way across his chest.

"My dream." I say, as though it's the most obvious answer in the world.

"Your dream about the Fairy Goddess?" I nod again. "You've never told me about this dream that seems to have changed your opinions about so many things. Will you tell me now?" He asks, as he reaches to turn off the water.

Eric towels us both dry and helps me into a warm flannel nightgown before walking to the cubby with me, still stark naked. A small part of me feels like it should tell him to cover up, considering we have guests and all, but the bigger part of me just can't find the words since I don't really want him to take that glorious body out of my sight. I'd follow those butt cheeks to hell and back just for the chance to palm one of them, and to hell with Bill and Pam!

Eric turns down the covers of our bed, pulling me down with him, and I'm struck once again by that feeling that a lifetime has passed in just the space of a few hours. It hasn't even been a whole night since I laid on this bed, naked and satisfied by my very own Viking sex god, while he rubbed my feet like it was the sole purpose of his existence, and now here we are again, fighting forces well beyond our strength and hoping to scrape by, just one more time, with our lives.

When I'm settled on the pillow, Eric does something he hasn't done since he was cursed. He opens the front of my nightgown gently, pulling the left side all the way over so that my breast is exposed to the cool air in the room and then he kisses my nipple softly before laying his head over it, listening to my heartbeat as he rubs the never changing stubble on his face into the soft little swell.

After a few moments of just meditating over the rhythm of my life he looks up at me and I feel the question in his eyes. Lifting up slightly to kiss the top of his beautiful head, I lay back down and stare at the ceiling and Eric goes back to resting over my heart, his hands stroking my stomach, sometimes coming up high enough to absently play with my breast, as I tell him about my dream.

I tell him all about Claudine coming to me as Bill was giving me his blood. I tell him about how she showed me my possible futures and I admit that, at the beginning, I didn't think there was much hope for us if he regained his memory.

"I never expected you to accept me like this." He interjects, the note of sadness clear in his voice. "Part of me thought you still loved Bill, even before he gave you more blood. When we were sitting in his study the night I regained my memories and I told you that nothing had changed between us, I thought there was a very real possibility that you would still leave me." I swallow hard at Eric's words. He's tried so hard, so much more than I thought he could, to overcome a thousand years of automatically repressing his emotions for me, but even so, for him to admit that he held out his heart to me fearing that I would tromp on in it and throw the remains back in his face, is a huge thing.

The frightening part is that I can't even reassure him that I wouldn't have done it. If Claudine hadn't come to me, hadn't stepped in and shown me sense, who knows what Bill giving me blood again would have led me to believe? It's entirely possible that, left to my own confused feelings and muddled devices, I would have thought that part of me was still in love with him. The thought makes me shudder now, but the truth is I'm not so full of myself that I can't admit there's a damn good reason why no one's ever handed me an award for my smarts.

"I don't want to think about what might have happened." I say honestly. "I'm just glad that Claudine came to me when she did." I can feel Eric smiling against my skin.

"What made you change your mind about me?" He asks, after I've told him everything, including (with a great deal of shame) the hell I gave Claudine about how impossible it would be for me to love the real Eric. "The future you had with Bill sounds much more like what I would expect you to want." I sometimes think that it's very unfair that Eric seems to know me so well when I still feel like he's a complete mystery to me more than half the time.

"Claudine showed me my future with Bill first and, when I saw it, I didn't understand how there could even be a choice. We looked so happy together and he treated me like such a lady. I could see his love for me and I could tell that I returned it. I even thought it was wonderful that he still looked at me and held me with such affection, even though I was growing older." I feel Eric's heart clench a little bit through our bond and I know that even the hypothetical discussion of my choosing Bill over him causes him pain. Stoking his hair and his shoulders soothingly, I send him the biggest wave of love I can through our bond, before answering his question. "At first, the life Claudine showed me with you didn't seem as though it could compare. We were at Fangtasia, of all places, and I told her that spending an eternity of nights there was my idea of hell. But then I saw the way we were together: I saw the way you looked at me, the way you touched me, the way you treated me, and I couldn't look away."

"How did I treat you? How did I look at you?" Eric asks me, lifting up from my chest to look me in the eye, his voice going low and his eyes taking on a smoky glint. I let my hands stroke his cheeks and wander down over his naked chest and torso, touching as much as I can, loving the feel of him warmed slightly from my body heat and positively needy for me.

"The way you're looking at me right now, the way you treat me every night. Only then, I thought that the 'real' Eric would never be capable of feeling anything that strongly for anyone, especially not me, and I thought the 'real' Eric could never want me as anything more than a possession. When I saw that you treated me like your equal, like your partner and not like your very own Tinkerbell doll, I knew that everything I might have been taught to want was with Bill, but everything that_ I _truly wanted was with you. I love you so much Eric, even more than the you without your memories. How do you do that? How do you keep making me love you more and more with each passing night?" I finish my question by cupping the back of Eric's neck and pulling him down on top of me, pressing the place where my night gown is open and our bodies meet skin to skin as tightly against him as possible.

There's molten flame behind Eric's eyes yet again tonight and I barely have time to breathe before his hand comes down to cup my face and he literally drags my lips up to meet his, his fangs slamming down and nicking my tongue just before he uses them to cut his own and then melds them together so that our bloods mix like the most sinful cocktail. When Eric finally pulls away, letting me breathe even though I know all of his instincts are telling him to pounce, I feel his need for me overtake his original desire to let me sleep.

"I want you so badly it's like an ache deep inside me." He whispers roughly as he peppers kisses from my lips down my throat and to my still bare breast, his tongue coming out to softly lick my nipple between words. My only response is a desperate moan as I feel my pussy flood with moisture and my thighs begin to rub together trying to relieve the sudden feeling of emptiness there. "It's never been like this with anyone before." He whispers again as he takes my breast in his mouth, licking and sucking it with abandon as I begin to writhe underneath him. "So many women, and none of them ever held my interest for more than a night, but you, you make me love you, want you, crave you like an addiction. The more I have the more I want, how do _you_ make _me_ feel such things when I lived a thousand years, so sure I was immune to feeling anything at all?"

"Eric, please, I need you. I was so scared. I thought I might lose you. I'm still scared." I feel Eric's hands reach underneath my nightgown pulling it up and over my head in one swift motion so that I'm as naked as he is once more and then he's throwing the covers off of us so that he can look at me, all of me, in the soft light from the bedside lamp.

"Sookie, look at me." He says, as he parts my thighs with his hands, his eyes meeting mine for a long moment before they caress down my body and finally glaze over as they meet my spread thighs and the glistening folds between them that are completely open and bared to his hungry gaze. "I…I'm scared too." He admits, looking earnestly into my face once more before he lowers his head to my dripping slit and takes one long deep inhale, shuddering with pleasure as he scents my need for him.

Holding my legs wide with his hands, Eric kisses my pussy as though he were kissing my mouth, his tongue darting out to part my folds and taste me as his lips press against them, making me cry out at the overwhelming pleasure of it even as my heart breaks at the sweetness.

Eric goes on like that, kissing and sucking and licking at me until I'm nothing more than a shivering wreck beneath him and, just as I'm about to come hard, he pulls away, crawling up my body to give me one half crazed look of obsessive craving before he grabs me and turns me over onto my stomach.

I feel his big hands roughly stroking my back and palming the swells of my bottom before he literally lays himself completely on top of me and drives into my achy, needing body in one long, hard thrust. I cry out at the sudden invasion, but can't help myself from trying to push back into him, needing to have as much of him as he can give me as fast as he can give it to me.

"I'm scared too," he repeats, as he begins to move inside of me, "but I will not let_ anything_ part us. Do you hear me, Sookie?" I nod my head emphatically, as Eric whispers darkly in my ear, his tongue darting out to trace along the shell.

"Yes, yes. Oh god Eric, don't stop!" I cry out, not really capable of saying anything more complicated as I use all my strength to lift up just that little bit so that I can take him deeper on each nearly savage thrust.

"I have fought and fought and fought since the moment I met you. Against the weakness you stirred in me, against my own better judgment in allowing myself to feel anything at all, against you and your stubborn, willful desire to hate me when all I wanted was to care for you and against every single person and circumstance that's stood between us. And finally,_ finally _after all of that fighting you love me too!" I feel Eric's arms pushing their way under my body as he whispers to me, his hands trapping my breasts, needing to squeeze and fondle them as he continues his assault on my sanity.

"Do you think that I would let anything take you from me now? Do you think I would let anything kill me and separate us? I WON'T. You may have fallen in love with the gentle man you saw when I was cursed and I promise you, Sookie, he wasn't a lie: that part of me exists, even if I only show it to you, but I swear to you right here and now that I would slaughter anyone, destroy anything, to keep you. I would set the world on fire and watch happily while it burned. You are mine, my bonded, my woman. I will never allow us to be taken from each other." Eric thrusts in hard to the hilt twice more and then we're both falling over the edge together, crying out incoherently as he fills me up and I clench around him, begging him for every last drop.

Rolling to his side and taking me with him, Eric presses my back into the contours of his front as we lay there, spent and shell shocked, and his words finally sink in. I should hate them. I did fall for the gentle humanity he showed me when he was cursed, but the truth is that I felt something; something dark and primal and strong and frightening for Eric, long before he was cursed, something that I buried deep and willfully chose to ignore for a long, long time, and as I lay here now I can't say that I love him only for the good qualities he showed me when he couldn't remember who he was.

I do love Eric for his surprising gentleness and sweetness. I do love Eric for his unexpected humor and his moments of genuine compassion and innocence. But I would be lying if I said I didn't also love Eric for his fierce, frighteningly single-minded devotion. I would be lying if I said that part of me wasn't exhilarated by his sinister, nearly terrifying willingness to do whatever it takes to protect me and the love we're building, and I would be lying if I didn't admit, however horrifying the realization might be, that I would do exactly the same thing for him.

I would have done, and did do, many things for Bill, but they were always noble things. I would have given him all my worldly possessions and become his lawful wife, I would have given my life for his, I would have helped him and fought for him through any trial. But I know that what I felt for Bill cannot even be classified in the same stratosphere as what I feel for Eric, because when Eric tells me that he would kill anyone or destroy anything to protect me, to keep my love, I know without having to dig deep that, given the chance, I would do the same, without pause, without conscience and without ever regretting it.

"I love you." I say, though I know that it's a paltry reply to his words of obsessive devotion. "All of you." I feel Eric nodding his head, telling me that he understands what I'm saying, even if the words fall so far short to my own ears.

"I know you do. I can feel it." He replies, laying tender kisses in my hair. "Sleep now, I'll wake you just before dawn."


	4. Chapter 4

_**A/N:**__ Hi, here's the next chapter! I realized as I was planning this story that I probably needed to address a couple of things, one of them being the consequence of Bill giving Sookie blood when she was shot, since in this universe it didn't cause her to act like a moronic idiot and forgive Bill all his sins and fall back in love with him. So we'll find out now how it's affecting her given that she chose Eric and then blood bonded with him! _

_Thanks again to everyone who's been reading, reviewing, favoriting and alerting this story! I am so very grateful that y'all are enjoying and I can't thank you enough for reading! And of course I have to give the love to my beta, Sheknitsnicely, the only reason you can read this story is because of her!_

_**Disclaimer:**__ I don't own them and pending a home visit by the California department of 'character welfare services' Alan Ball might not for much longer either!_

I'm warm and cozy in my bed when something brings me out of my sleep. Part of me wants to just turn over and snuggle deep into the cover, but whatever it is that's touching me feels so good, I can't ignore it. Moaning in completely kittenish pleasure, I open my eyes and stretch my arms far above my head, looking down my own still very naked body to see a head of beautiful golden hair moving determinedly between my spread thighs and a tongue, cool and soft, dragging deliciously up and down my folds. Bringing a hand down, I start to run my fingers through the soft strands of sunshine, letting their owner know how much I love what he does to me here in our bed.

"If you spend any more time down there you're going to have to start putting it on your schedule." I tease, even as I grip the back of his neck to hold him there. Eric just laughs softly, the vibrations against my clit making my hips rise up off the bed, arching into his tongue. Pulling back slightly to look at me, Eric replaces his tongue with his equally talented fingers.

"6:30 rise. 6:31 eat Sookie. 7:30 feed from my very satisfied Sookie. 7:45 eat Sookie. 8:45 shower and dress. 9:00 eat Sookie. 9:15 eat Sookie. 9:30 go to work. I think your idea has merit, lover. If I schedule this then Pam can't possibly tell me she doesn't know when to reach me!" I blush straight to scarlet at Eric's taking my joke to such vulgar lengths, but the truth is that I love when he does this to me and I love, even more, that he loves doing it so much.

Eric smiles wide and beautiful at my scandalized southern belle blush and then lowers his head to me again, letting go of all restraint and devouring me as though I'm an oasis in the desert, his tongue, teeth, lips and fingers causing me to nearly go blind, deaf and dumb from the pleasure. I'm so carried away by the things that he's doing that I don't see the figure moving out of the shadows of the room, stalking towards us.

Just as I scream out my release the figure comes to the foot of the bed. It's Bill: jealous, angry and naked, holding a piece of jagged wood in his hand. I try to scream in terror, I try to pull Eric away from me so that he can defend himself, but suddenly I'm paralyzed, unable to talk or move to help my love in any way, forced to watch as Bill pins me with a demented gaze and brings the wooden stake down through Eric's chest and into his heart.

I scream and a cry in mute silence as I see the man I love fall to bloody bits on top of me in our bed, his remains coating the skin of my stomach and thighs. The tears stream down my face as I try to get up, too shocked and crazed to do anything but try to gather the bits of him when Bill throws me back, taking both my hands in one of his and imprisoning them above my head.

"This is your fault, Sookie!" Bill screams in my face, his normally cool blue eyes absolutely burning with rage. "It didn't have to be this way, but you forced my hand. If only you'd returned to me before Antonia, Eric would still be alive right now. I let you fuck him, I let you have your fun, but then you went and broke the rules. You thought you could keep him, you thought you could belong to another. You are mine! You will always be mine!" I stop trying to scream or speak when Bill uses his free hand to force my bloody thighs apart. My eyes go wide with terror as I understand what he intends to do to me. Shaking my head back and forth, pleading with him with my eyes, I cry silently as he lowers himself on top of me.

I call for Eric soundlessly, over and over again, as Bill positions himself, the pain of Eric's death nearly overwhelming the physical pain I know I'll feel. As Bill pushes into me, my voice suddenly returns and I hear myself let out a blood curdling scream….

"Sookie! Lover, lover wake up!" I feel two big, strong, cool hands shaking me gently and in my terror I blindly flail against them, my eyes still tightly shut.

"No, let me go! Please don't hurt me!" I say, my own hands coming up to pummel a broad, hard chest.

"Sookie it was a dream!" The voice says, in the beautiful accent I love so much, but I know it has to be a trick. I'll never hear that voice again.

"You killed Eric!" I scream, hitting harder, wailing as my tears start to fall down my cheeks.

"Sookie OPEN YOUR EYES!" The voice commands me, taking my face in its hands. The last iron tentacles of sleep release me and I open my eyes to find Eric holding my face in his hands, a look of fearful concern painting in his features. It's a look that's become frighteningly familiar in the last week.

"Eric?" I ask, disbelieving what I see in front of me. My sleep muddled mind still trying to decipher what was the dream from what is reality, hoping against hope that this is real, but still terrified that it might not be.

"I'm here lover, I'm alive. It was just a dream." I nod my head, knowing Eric is right but unable to stop from flinging myself into the arms I was fighting against just moments ago and burying my face in his chest, breathing in the scent of his skin and rubbing my face against the soft, downy blond hairs that cover it.

Eric wraps his arms around me, holding me tight just as he's done on the other three nights this has happened, soothing me with strong, comforting hands up and down my back and sweetly croons words in his beautiful old language: words that I don't understand but that make me feel loved, sheltered and protected.

"Why do I dream such horrific things about him?" I finally work up the courage to ask, after my tears die down to snuffles against Eric's now soaking wet chest. "I've had so much of both of your bloods, shouldn't I be having crazy, dirty sex dreams about the both of you?" Eric pets my hair and kisses my forehead soothingly, a gentle, if amused, smile on his face.

"We're bonded now, Sookie." He explains. "Bill's blood will never have the power to influence your feelings towards him again. You dream frightening things about him because he frightens you."

"Oh." Is the only response I make, but inside my still sleep foggy brain is churning. The knowledge that Bill can't ever control me again with his blood is such an incredible relief that it's almost worth having nightmares for.

Back in Dallas, I never called Bill on it when he said that Eric's single drop of blood would make me attracted to him. I just accepted it outright and, when I'd had blood dreams about Eric, I never gave a second thought as to why my imagination had played what I came to think of as the "Sookie and Eric porntacular" literally every single night. I'd accepted Bill's explanation blindly and never even questioned the logic that, if a single drop of blood could supposedly create an attraction, then what could the many, many pints Bill had given me - starting on the night after we met - do.

"Do you think that anything I ever felt for him was real?" I hear myself asking, not realizing I'd started thinking aloud. Eric gives me a hard look and I can tell that he doesn't want to say what he's about to, but that he won't lie to me.

"No." Is his simple answer. "In the amounts Bill gave you, so soon after you met? No." When I turn away from him, trying to staunch my tears before they drown us in the bed, Eric takes my chin gently in his hands and leads my eyes back to his.

"But I think if he'd had the time, if he hadn't been forced to take drastic measures because of his orders from the Queen, you might have come to feel for him as you did naturally. Bill is handsome, after a certain fashion, he presents himself as the perfect southern gentleman and his mind is blissfully silent to you. It's not hard to see how you could have been drawn to him, had he given you the chance." I bring my hand to cup Eric's cheek, at that, and kiss him softly because I know that this admission from him must be just as painful for him as his initial answer was for me.

"The drop of blood you gave me in Dallas, is all this because of that?" I say, gesturing into the small space between our still naked bodies. I know deep down inside that I started feeling…'things' for Eric on the night we met, but I want to hear him say it once and for all. I want to hear him say it and feel the truth of his words through this connection that, once again, makes us equal, and that means he can never lie to me or manipulate me the way Bill did.

"No. I didn't give you enough of my blood in Dallas to influence you. I gave you enough so that I would be able to feel your emotions. You are so honest and… good, I had to know if those things that drew me to you were genuine or not, and my blood was the easiest way. That amount was just enough to make you think of me, but not enough to influence those thoughts. I was beginning to realize that what I felt for you was love even then, Sookie, and I dreamed incessantly that one day you would be mine. You know me well enough to know that I will go to great lengths to get what I want, but in this case, when it finally happened, I wanted my victory to be pure. Your love wouldn't have been the great prize that it is if I'd cheated.

So no, lover, if you dreamt dirty dreams about me after I gave you my blood it's because, secretly, you wanted to do dirty things to me." Eric answers, smirking, his face a combination of male pride and amusement. I'm sure he can feel the part of me that wants to slap that smirk right off of him. I don't like being talked about like a prized heifer at a fair, but I suppose deep down inside I understand why he thinks of it that way. After all, he told me last night that he viewed our unusual courtship as a war he'd fought, so I guess that_ would_ make my love the prize. Considering that Eric is putting up with the fact that Bill is here in our house indefinitely and that I'm the one who invited him in, I guess I can let it slide this once.

"I guess it doesn't really matter about Bill. Whether it was the blood or if he'd let me feel things for him naturally, he's my Ashley Wilkes." I say, more to myself than to Eric, trying to sum it up in terms that I can understand. Eric raises his eyebrow at my comparison. "Gone With the Wind." I say in explanation. Still nothing. "There's this Southern belle named Scarlet and she's beautiful and feisty and stubborn and she thinks she's in love with her perfect Southern gentleman: Ashley. He's handsome and gentile and he knows that she's infatuated with him and leads her on for the better part of her life even though he really doesn't care for her. And there's this other man, Rhett. He's beautiful and dangerous and daring, but no gentleman as far as Scarlet is concerned. He's also crudely honest about wanting Scarlet and, even though she spends a great deal of the movie chasing Ashley and snubbing Rhett, it's Rhett who's her perfect mate. It's a sad movie though, because she ruins her own happiness. She throws it away with both hands. She only opens her eyes and realizes that it's Rhett who she belongs with after she's hurt him so much that he no longer loves her." Eric gives me a puzzled look as he pulls me into his lap, holding me even tighter against him.

"Then I'm not your Rhett." He states emphatically. When I give him a questioning, almost hurt look, he smiles at me softly and lays feather light kisses across my face. "I cannot be this Rhett because there is nothing you could ever do that would make me turn away from you. I am yours." There isn't a single thing on this planet that I could possibly say that wouldn't ruin this moment so I don't bother to try.

I just take Eric's face in my hands and kiss him hard and long letting him feel how much that single statement means to me and how lucky I feel that things worked out the way they did. We've been skirting around it since last night, but the truth is, I was at such a crossroads when Claudine came to me, I could very well have driven him away in my confused stupidity.

"No, you're not my Rhett," I say finally, "you're my Eric!" Eric nods proudly, happy to be claimed by me.

"Yes, I am." He confirms, gently taking me off his lap and laying down. "It's nearly dawn love." Eric says, suddenly looking tired. I nod, leaning over and kissing both of his eyes closed, watching as he lets me the sun take him under.

~*E*~

I'm just putting coffee on when I see Alcide pull up in his truck. There are two other trucks following his and, when they all park, I count about ten other guys with him.

I watch as Alcide gives them instructions and then turn away, blushing furiously as they strip down and transform, trotting off into my woods in different directions. I've seen all sorts of men naked in the last couple of years, including some of my best friends, but for some reason it still makes me embarrassed and giggly all at the same time. Alcide, still Human and still dressed, makes his way up to the front porch, barely getting the chance to knock before I'm rushing over to open the door and hurrying him in, practically slamming it behind him.

"Thanks so much for coming!" I say to him, giving him a big hello hug. Alcide returns it before looking down on me with concerned eyes.

"You know I'll always come if you need me, Sookie. Now tell me what's going on." He says, as I usher him into the kitchen.

"Are you hungry?" I ask. Alcide cracks a big smile and nods his head, following me. Apparently Weres are always hungry, or maybe it's just breathing men, considering my brother is half Alcide's size but they seem to eat about the same amount.

Alcide sits at my kitchen table watching me, while I heat my Gran's iron skillet on the stove and put together dough for biscuits, a far off smile on his face. Once I've got ground sausage in the pan and the biscuits in the oven I sit down with him, putting a cup of coffee in front of us both.

"Bill and Pam are resting upstairs." I start off, watching as Alcide's eyebrows go sky high. "Bill came over last night. He says that the Authority is after him and Eric. They want to kill them both and take me." Alcide's expression goes from shocked to angry before I can even finish my sentence. Holding up my hand so that he doesn't interrupt me, I push on through to the end. "There's more." I tell him. "Eric and Pam were attacked at Fangtasia last night by Weres hopped up on V. Eric says he saw Russell Edgington on the roof top across the street from the bar watching and there were wolves in my woods last night just watching the house."

"That all?" He asks, letting out a huge puff of air. I nod my head, getting up to refill our coffee cups and turn the sausage. "Jesus Christ Sookie, this is bad."

"I know. Eric finagled a meeting tonight with the Authority. He's hoping that he can negotiate with the person they sent, but yeah…it's bad. If you and your guys will stay and guard the house during the day, Eric'll pay you whatever you want, you know that." I say, knowing that Alcide will stick by me no matter what and hoping that the promise of money will keep the other men he brought with him here as well.

"You don't worry about that Sookie, we'll be here as long as you need us." He says. I smile wide in thanks as I put a big plate of biscuits and sausage gravy in front of him.

"So what's going on with you?" I ask, attempting to prove that, despite appearances, I don't actually think everything in everyone's lives revolves around me. Alcide's face goes a little sour as he forks a big chunk of drippy biscuit.

"Debbie took off about three days ago." He says, his voice sounding far more angry than sad or worried.

"Oh gosh, I'm so sorry!" I reply. I know how hung up Alcide has been on Debbie, through good and bad, and I know that he was really hoping this time things would work between them.

"What happened?" I ask, knowing it's probably rude of me, but hoping that Alcide isn't offended and wants someone to talk to.

"She's been acting weird since the whole possession." He tells me nonchalantly. I know I've got a shocked look on my face, but I just can't help it. Sometimes it feels like I'm the only one who realizes how messed up and strange our lives are. Maybe it's because Alcide's always been a man who changes into a big white wolf and Eric and Bill have been using people like drink boxes for centuries, but seriously - Debbie was possessed, against her will, by a demented disembodied witch with a vendetta against Vampires who then jumped her body for mine - I can't be the only one who understands that there are whole bunches of people out there for whom these things aren't everyday occurrences!

"I never did get the chance to ask you what happened that night." I say, after managing to swallow my forkful without choking.

"I messed up. She heard me on the phone to Northman and realized what was going on. She hit me over the head with that stupid wooden salt shaker she insisted on buying from Ikea, cause she thought it was classier to have dinner stuff that comes from another country, and tied me up. She was out of the house before I woke up." I'm not sure what the right response is to any of that, but I hope I'm not stating the obvious with my next sentence.

"It wasn't really her, Alcide. It was Antonia." I say gently. Alcide blows a puff of air out of the side of his mouth and looks at me with furrowed brows.

"I know, but everything that happened afterwards is all her, Sookie. She just freaked out, wouldn't talk to me, couldn't stay still for a single moment. I tried to help her, I did, but I came home from work three nights ago and she was gone." I lean over and gently pat Alcide's hand with mine, hoping to be of some comfort.

"I'm so sorry, I feel like this is all my fault. You wouldn't have been involved in any of that if you hadn't come running to my rescue as usual." I say, really realizing how much of this is my fault and that, hey, it really does look like everyone's life revolves around me. "Alcide, if Debbie is missing then why are you here? You've got a big problem of your own right now; you should be out looking for your fiancé." I ask him. Alcide gets up from the table, bringing his empty plate to the sink and grabbing mine along the way.

"Debbie won't be found unless she wants to Sookie. I've looked everywhere, I just have to hope that she's alright. But I got to tell you, I been thinking real hard the last couple a nights while I've been looking for her and I realized something. It ain't never gonna be the way it was between us in the beginning again." He tells me as he rinses our dishes and then comes to stand in front of my chair. "I've been blaming Debbie for that, but the truth is, it ain't her fault. It's not just her that's different, it's me too. I want things now that she can't give me." I haven't even had time to process what it is that Alcide's said before he's taken my arms in his hands and hauled me up out of the chair and against his chest.

Thinking that Alcide is just looking for a comforting hug, I wrap my arms around his big, hard middle and pat his back gently. But the body to body contact lessens the difficulty I have reading Weres and all of the sudden Alcide's mind is an open book to me.

"…_could make her so happy. We could be so good together. She needs a real, warm blooded, living man to take care of her, not that fucking ice cold leach. God I can't stop thinking about the way she moaned under him. I could make her scream!" _That last thought is accompanied by an image that can only be Eric and I on the night we first made love in the woods, but it quickly morphs and suddenly it's Alcide that's above me instead while I scream out his name.

His thoughts, and the images that come with them, are so unexpected and unwanted that I don't even have to think about it before automatically trying to pull away. Problem is, once you're in the arms of a six foot three wall of muscle, it's really up to said wall of muscle to decide when the hug is over.

"Alcide let me go!" I say forcefully, even though my voice is muffled by his chest, which he's pressing me against. I manage to get my hands between us and push on his stomach a little and suddenly I'm free. Looking up at him I'm met with an expression that's both apologetic and determined.

"You were reading my mind?" He asks me looking slightly abashed. I nod my head in response, not really sure what I should say. Alcide doesn't give me the time to form an answer though. "I wish you hadn't, but I won't apologize for it Sookie. You have to know how much I care about you. You said it yourself once, that you wished you could fall for a nice guy like me. Well I'm here, Sookie, and I've had a lot of time to think it over. I want to fall for a nice girl like you too. We're so busy running after these people who do nothing but use us and hurt us. It's up to us to stop that before we end up dead, for nothing. I'd walk away from her, without a second thought, for you. I'm asking you to do the same. I can take you away from all of this right now, Sook. I can take good care of you, love you like you deserve, treat you right, give you a good life."

I don't know whether to be flattered that Alcide feels this way about me or appalled that he's telling me that he would leave his missing and possibly in trouble girlfriend without ever even looking back, but in the end it's all moot. I guess it isn't a surprise what he's saying just surprising that he's saying it now.

"I did tell you that I wished I could fall for a nice guy like you, Alcide, I did. But that was before." I say in a level voice, taking a big step back from him.

"Before what, Sookie? Before these vamps betrayed and hurt you more? Before you were almost nearly killed again? Before what?" He says, a little irate but staying put. I feel bad, truly bad, crushing Alcide like this, after Debbie's already done another number on his heart, but the truth is the truth.

"Before Eric." I answer him simply. Alcide gives me a disbelieving look and rakes a hand through his hair.

"You can't be serious Sookie? You love Eric…Northman?" I take a single step back into Alcide's space and stare him straight in the eye so there is no misunderstanding between us.

"Like crazy." I say, my voice like steel. "You saw us, Alcide. I wish you hadn't honestly, that wasn't for anyone else's eyes, but you did. Did I look like I was being forced? Did I look like I was faking it? I love him and we're bonded now." I say with finality. I can see the hurt look on Alcide's face, but there isn't a thing that I can do about it.

"I'm sorry Sookie. I guess I didn't realize how far it had gone with you two. I…I won't talk to you about this again, okay? Not unless you want to. But Sookie, I meant what I said and, if you ever change your mind, I'll be here waiting." I nod my head and give him a small smile, happy that he's giving me the possibility of walking away from this conversation as friends. I do truly love Alcide, but as a friend and nothing more. Once upon a time there might have been the possibility of it turning into something more, but not now and not ever again.

We kind of circle around each other awkwardly for about another hour, watching some TV from separate sides of the couch and me looking at a magazine but not really reading it while Alcide walks around the ground floor of the house a few times, before his phone starts to ring. Alcide answers it and there is a good deal of back and forth between him and the person on the other end, before he hangs up and looks at me with a frustrated expression.

"Not that you needed confirmation at this point, but that was my site manager. The guys who run the parking garage I built, the one where Eric and Bill buried Russell, called a couple of days ago to complain about a big old hole in the foundation. They want us to come and fix it. My dad's secretary lost the message and they just called again to complain that no one's come out to repair it." _And thank you Captain Obvious!_ I think as I look at Alcide. I know it's not his fault but really, this is so information that would have been useful like… two nights ago! Sighing, I just nod my head at him.

"Well now we know for sure that none of the Vampires in this house are insane, just the ones trying to get into it." I say off handedly.

The rest of the day passes much like the first hour. Alcide and I tip toe around each other, trying not to think about the awkward and embarrassing conversation we had. The wolves that came with him check in a few times to tell us that, right now, the woods are clear and we watch a whole bunch of morning game shows and afternoon soaps.

I leave Alcide in front of Dr. Phil and go to take a shower and freshen up about a half hour before sunset. I'm dressed and throwing my freshly washed hair up into a messy pony tail when I go to the kitchen to make Alcide and I a quick dinner, only to find Pam awake and rummaging through the cabinet beneath my sink.

"What's up, Pam?" I ask, watching as she takes out a bottle of Comet, reads the back of it, shakes her head and then puts it on the kitchen floor. She takes out a bottle of Clorox for countertops and then a bottle of Mop and Glow and repeats the same process on them.

"You have bleach for your bathroom, bleach for your kitchen and bleach for your floors, but I see nothing I can use on my brain to remove the memory of the noises I was forced to endure coming up from the cubby last night!" She answers, without even bothering to look up at me from her position crouched under my sink.

It's probably for the best, since I'm sure that I'm literally ten shades of red right now. Pam just sighs in a really put upon way, gets up and brushes off the pair of borrowed sweat pants she's wearing.

"I suppose it's worth the trauma if Eric is happy." She mutters, more to herself than to me before walking past me into the living room. "At least Bill heard it too, so I can torture him with it!" I'm holding my head in my hands by this point, trying my best to block out my embarrassment, as I hear her chuckling to herself from the other room, laughing and repeating, in a fake breathless voice "Yes, yes, oh God ERIC, don't stop!" Sometimes I really, really hate Pam!

At that moment, three things happen at once: Eric comes up from the cubby looking grimly determined, Bill emerges from the guest room looking sour, angry and miserable at the same time and the doorbell rings.


	5. Chapter 5

_**A/N:**__ Next chapter! Thank you, thank you everyone who's been reading, reviewing, favoriting and alerting this story! It means the world to me that you're enjoying! So all I can say about this chapter is that loving the 'real' Eric means loving the whole Eric: good, bad and formerly assholish. Sookie put her big girl panties on last story and I intend for her to keep them on, even when we do a little brushing up against Mr. Northman's lengthy past. _

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own them, but after a review of the facts in this case, Sookie and Eric have been moved into temporary foster care with loving guardians who do NOT allow them any contact with Mr. Ball or Bill Compton, pending a complete review of the abuse and mistreatment they've endured!_

One thing I will give Vampires is that when the 'you know what' hits the fan, all other concerns take a back seat to their instinctual drive to survive. The doorbell ringing acts like a lightning bolt, hitting the uncomfortably thrown together occupants of my house and all of the sudden Pam's sarcasm, Bill's misery and Eric's worry disappear completely, to be replaced by three determined faces all taking up strategic positions around the living room as though they'd had a chance to practice this dance beforehand.

Pam grabs a poker from the fire place and goes to stand behind the couch, where her hands and anything in them are pretty much out of sight. Bill takes a place beside, but not directly in front of, my biggest living room window so that he can keep an eye on what's going on outside without actually being visible to anyone out there and Eric goes to the door, his face looking fierce and indomitable all at once as he gestures for me to get behind him so that I can issue the needed invitation without actually showing myself to anyone out there…or their weapons. We all stand frozen like that for one single, tense second and then Eric nods his head, letting Bill, Pam and Alcide know he's ready and swings open the door.

I don't know what I expected, perhaps an army of Kevlar clad, Vampire goons with semi-automatic, wooden bullet firing weapons, or a group of snarling feral Vamps gnashing their teeth at us and licking their fangs, but what we get is one tiny, pretty little dark haired Vampire standing on my porch in designer up the wahoo purple leather pants and a matching jacket, tapping the toe of one of her very high heeled boots loudly as she waits for someone to answer.

When the door opens the Vampire looks up and up more, as if already knowing that she's going to have to crane her graceful neck way back to get to the face of the person answering.

"Eric." She says, and the one word rings out in a pretty, refined Russian accent that makes her sounds as though she's tinkling bells.

"Ilina." Eric responds shortly, before looking around.

"My men are at still at Bill's place." she answers his unspoken question. Eric nods, looking down at me, giving me the go ahead.

"Ilina Olenska, you may enter our home." With that, we both move aside and she steps across the threshold. Ilina quickly scans the living room, giving Pam a neutral once over, sneering openly at Bill and Alcide and then settling her dark almost black colored eyes on me as I stand by the fireplace next to Eric, the entire length of our sides touching. Even though Eric makes no move to put an arm around me, like a Human male might do, his statement to her is clear. I am his. If she wants me she'll have to go through him. In typical Eric fashion, it's a statement and a threat all at once.

Ilina stares at me for a moment longer, her gaze actually going back and forth between Eric and me, as she seems to try to process something and then she speaks, her voice level and in control, betraying nothing about what she might be thinking.

"Eric, you wanted this meeting, so talk." And with those words she and Eric begin a rapid back and forth that sounds like not very much at all but has, I'm guessing, a great deal of subtext that's lost on the rest of us.

"I want you to rescind the warrants for Bill and me and leave me and my bonded in peace." That garners a rather loud snort from the otherwise sober Vampire.

"Of course you do, that doesn't mean it's going to happen." She responds, cracking a derisive smile and pointing it at us like a weapon.

"What I told you last night was true. Russell Edgington lives. If you do as I ask we will neutralize him for you." Again, Eric's attempt is met with not much more than an eye roll.

"Even if that is true, why on Earth would I give the job to the person who failed so spectacularly at it the first time? Actually, come to think of it, you've been failing at it for an entire millennium at this point haven't you?" Eric's face betrays absolutely nothing, not even a twitch of his jaw, but inside I can feel his reaction as if it were my own.

It's as if the temperature in the room just dropped way, way down and everything is under a solid block of glacial ice. Of Eric's many different types of anger, this one is by far the most dangerous because the frigid cold that comes with it is calculating and assessing, like snakes slithering around in a pit, looking for the best place to strike.

"I did not fail." Eric clarifies, his voice utterly devoid of any of the darkness going on inside him. "I defeated him and could have killed him, but didn't." One perfectly groomed eyebrow goes up into the air as Ilina digests his response.

"You managed to overpower a Vampire three times your age and then what… you suddenly had an attack of conscience? You're forgetting that I know, intimately, how completely without the ability to feel you are, Eric." I notice, off handedly, that this statement seems to garner a sadistically pleased smile from Bill, as he abandons his intense scrutiny of my curtains to watch my reactions to Ilina's little revelation.

I don't know what kind of response he's expecting from me, but I can't say I'm in the least bit shocked. I know who and what Eric is. I don't know every single thing (or person) he's done in his thousand plus years on this planet, but I have a good enough imagination to know I don't really want to.

If I needed any help with that, I could just refer to the time I walked in on Eric pounding Yvetta into a pulp in his filthy torture dungeon of a basement not all that long ago. I might not be the sharpest stake in the bunch but I can add two and two together without help: Eric has a sordid and lengthy sexual past and Ilina is female and pretty and they've met before, with my former man whore of a boyfriend those are pretty much the only pre-requisites needed.

Am I going to go run screaming from this room because it's been brought up? Am I going to turn on Eric as though I never thought he got laid before me and rant hysterically at him, when all of our lives are on the line? No. The past is the past…even when it's in our living room considering killing us all. I feel nothing from Eric that would make me jealous or give me cause to doubt him. His feelings for her right now, whatever they might or might not have been before, center only around his frustration at her flippancy and what that might mean for all of our life expectancies, and a desperate desire to find something that will turn the tables in our favor.

I can feel Eric searching for something and coming up with one and only one thing that he thinks will help us. It's something he clearly doesn't want to put out there, but he's desperate enough at this point to use it.

"Godric came to me and asked me to spare Russell's life." Eric's statement hangs in the air between them for a long moment, one in which Ilina looks a little dumb struck, then a large bit uncertain and finally wary. In all that time, Eric is stoic as ever, but the first bit of longing and sadness creeps into him and I know it's all for his maker, whom he misses and whom he's slightly ashamed to have just used as a bargaining chip.

"You had better not be lying to me Eric." Ilina says cautiously. Eric's expression softens slightly.

"You've had my blood, you know I am not." At this revelation I do look up at him and my resolve momentarily falters. I feel one of Eric's hands snake up my back, running up and down it, trying to soothe away my sudden turmoil.

"Why would Godric ask you to do this?" She asks, but in reality it doesn't seem like she actually cares, more like she's just looking for something to say to stall a little bit and get more time to think.

"He was not the same the last time I saw him…I cannot explain it, but it is absolutely what he wanted me to do. Nothing else would have stopped me from ending Russell. You know that by now, no doubt." Eric's answer is nothing but truth and I can feel exactly how much the last time he saw his maker alive confuses and wounds him still. Ilina's arms drop from their defensive stance, crossed under her chest, to dangle by her sides and I see a myriad of emotions pass over her once stone like face before she looks up at Eric with a slightly angry expression.

"Russell is a large problem and if he isn't yours then he'll become mine. Fine!" She says, as though she's pissed to be even considering it. "But this time no fuck ups and you are not allowed to fall prey to anyone else's attack of conscience either. To that end I will allow my men to assist you. If you manage to finally kill him you and Bill can walk away with your lives." Eric nods his head, but presses on.

"And my bonded?" I feel his heart clench when he calls me that and sense his fear that we're not out of the woods. I know that, even though we're probably going to be having a very serious discussion in the next little bit, the truth is he loves me. And that's not something any other woman living, dead or not quite dead can say.

"Is she or is she not a Fairy?" Ilina turns her gaze to me when she asks this and I see her black eyes nearly drilling through me trying to ferret out the answer by the shear intensity of her curiosity alone.

Eric's emotions turn spotty and erratic as he considers her question, a haze of unsure feelings that float by unevenly, some bobbing up to hit him and others passing by barely felt, before he sighs internally and decides on an answer.

"She is." He says plainly. I see Pam, Bill and Alcide all look at him in utter disbelief, but I understand that he's not betraying me. I am what I am, and how much longer are we going to be able to hide it? It's becoming the worst kept secret in the south. Even Vampires who don't know my family tree want me for my smell and my taste. So is there really a point to lying anymore?

"Can you walk in the daylight?" Ilina's eyes narrow at that and I see her fangs come down slightly. Eric takes a step away from the fireplace and brings his arm out, sweeping me behind him in a protective stance.

"No." He tells her with finality.

"What about the light Nan said she overheard the girl talking about?" Eavesdropping bitch! Seriously, when did Nan have the time to overhear that conversation? She was trying to glamour an entire state!

"A form of self- defense but not lethal to Vampires." Except for the red light that shoots out as fire and barbecues Vampires like 4th of July hot dogs, but we don't need to mention that one. Eric's tone stays flinty as he answers her, but I can see from her face that she appears to be buying it. I guess if they've shared blood she can sense he's not lying, and since I didn't actually manage to kill anyone yet, even with the red light, Eric's answer is balanced right on the razor's edge of truth.

"Do you have proof of any of this?" Eric just nods his head.

"Of both, as well as the fact that I did defeat Russell. Our final confrontation took place outside of Fangtasia, the security cameras caught the whole thing." I guess it's a good thing he didn't lie about me or my light, cause what happens at Fangtasia is clearly not staying there.

"I will require a copy as proof. Whether or not I believe you will be immaterial to the members of the Authority, but if they can see it for themselves, you may have a chance of keeping her. Even then I can't give you any guarantees beyond that I will not take her. But if it's true that her blood is not a cure from the sun I see no reason why they would continue to want her. Are we in agreement?" Ilina asks finally.

"Yes." Eric says. The two of them stare deeply at each other and I feel a moment of guilty remorse pass through him before he pulls himself back together.

"Good, I will allow you the use of my men, but you're in charge of bringing me Edgington. How do you propose to defeat him… _a second time_?" Ilina says, apparently also back on track.

"He sent his wolves to Fangtasia last night to attack us and they were in the woods around here as well. He seems to be baiting me, showing me that he can end me anytime but not actually doing it. If I leave this house again it seems probable that he will try once more either to intimidate me or to perhaps, this time, attack me." At Eric's words, Pam and I both take a step towards him and I hear her voice her fear at the exact same time I do.

"Eric no!" We both say with a great deal of feeling. Eric looks down at me and then at Pam, his expression softer than it's been at any point tonight.

"I'll have Compton with me," he turns at that and gives Bill a menacing, fangy smile, "as well as Ilina and her men. Russell won't get the chance to touch me." Is it really worth reassuring two women who can tell that your confident swagger is nothing more than show? Cause I'm betting Pam knows as well as I do that Eric's shoveling a load of bull at us right now.

"Good. Give me two hours to make my men ready and put them in place. Where do you want to confront him?" Eric looks at our newest ally and then at Alcide.

"The parking lot where he was buried." Eric lets Alcide give Ilina the address and she nods, leaving to make her preparations without even a backwards glance at any of us.

The minute she's gone, Pam is in Eric's face right alongside me and we're both trying to get him to reconsider, Pam's words probably going a much longer way than mine, since she apparently knows who Ilina is to Eric.

"You know you can't trust her, Eric! Godric is dead, you can't expect any old loyalty to him to mean anything to her." Pam has clearly had a great deal of training in knowing exactly how to maneuver Eric because, where I would have started screaming and throwing things, she (usually never one for the softer side of femininity) lets her pretty blue eyes go big, soft, wide and innocent and pins him with a look that's a perfect combination of pleading and adoring. It's so compelling, I think I'd give her anything she wanted right now!

"I know she's not to be trusted, Pam. But whether she intends to keep her word or not, until Russell is taken care of I don't have to worry about her sneaking up behind me with a stake in her hand and that's all I need." That statement is all too close to the dream I had last night and I feel my heart literally seize in one long pang of pain. Eric looks at me briefly to make sure that I'm okay and then he turns back to Pam.

"While we're gone, you are not to let Sookie out of your sight." Eric instructs her. Both of us start to protest at the same time, but Eric holds up his hand and looks at us with a steely gaze. "I mean it. I'm counting on the two of you to protect each other. You might not like it, either of you," he says giving each of us a significant look, "but you are my child," Eric brushes Pam's cheek at that, "and you are my bonded," he leans over and kisses my forehead, "I could not bear to lose either of you and I need you both to take care of and protect one another." And of course this is the moment when I find out just who taught Pam how to do that big, watery, blue eyed puppy gaze, cause I'm getting the thousand megawatt version of it right now from her maker and of course I can't say no; apparently neither can she cause, again, at the same time as me, I hear her agree.

"Yes Eric." Obviously the sound of those words is even sweeter in stereo because Eric smiles and gives us both a kiss on the forehead before heading off to the cubby, barking an order at Bill to get his shit together on the way.

Pam and I share one really long look as we try to figure out what we are to each other now. It's one thing for us to nicely share Eric's time and attention as though he's a vacation condo in Florida, it's another thing entirely to accept responsibility for protecting another person and know that you'll be irrevocably hurting the person you love most in the world if you fail.

"I'm only doing this for Eric." Damn it! We managed to say it at the same time again. Pam looks just as exasperated as I know I do and we both decide to just quit and deal with it later, Pam throwing herself down on the couch and picking up the magazine I was reading earlier and me heading off to the cubby.

When I get down the ladder, Eric is sitting on the bed holding his sword in one hand and running what he told me was called a "wet stone" over it with the other, sharpening it and just kinda meditating over it. Walking over, I stand in front of him and he looks up at me dazed, almost as if he didn't hear me coming, and puts the sword to the side, pulling me by my hips to stand between his legs.

"Who is she?" I ask, feeling like we just don't have time to beat around the bush.

Eric sighs heavily but doesn't look away from me. He knows that his honesty is imperative. It's the thing that's most sacred to me after everything Bill put me through. I know that Eric is no saint. I know that, despite his moments of sweetness and gentleness, he's no innocent. I know that he's done things I couldn't stomach hearing about, but I'm not naïve enough anymore to think that anyone is without skeletons. Bill shattered that delusion pretty harshly for me and I have no doubt that, the older you are, the bigger the closet you get to fill them with. As long as Eric is straight with me we'll always be okay though.

"She's no one, barely even a memory until last night." He starts out saying, looking miserable and achingly sad all at once. It makes me genuinely frightened for one moment, until I realize that the feelings he's feeling are the ones I usually associate with his still very raw grief over Godric. Taking his face in my hands and kissing both of his eyes softly I look down on him with as much gentleness as I possess.

"Tell me." I whisper softly. Eric pulls me into his lap and wraps his arms around me, burying his face in my hair and breathing me in for one long moment before pulling back so that we can look at each other while he talks, so that I'll feel and see the truth of his words at the same time.

"Most progeny do not stay long with their makers. Jessica's few months with Bill are a bit quick, but not by much. Most children don't stay more than a year or so and almost none more than a decade. Godric and I stayed together continuously for over six hundred years, and even when I finally went off on my own we came back together often. When we saw Godric in Dallas, I had not seen him since the end of the second world war, a little over sixty years, and that is the longest separation we ever had…until now." Eric stops there and I know that he's thinking about the fact that he'll never ever see Godric again. I just nod my head, running my hands up and down Eric's neck soothingly, and let him take his time.

"We spent many, many centuries tracking the wolves that killed my family and the Vampire who controlled them and, in the mid seventeenth century, that led us into Russia. The winters are endless there and colder than anything I've ever experienced, even in Scandanavia. And where winter is beautiful and thrilling in my homeland, it's gray and miserable and disease infested there…or at least it was. The Humans were just as likely to drop off from starvation and sickness as from hypothermia. Because of it, there are very few Vampires there and most of those congregated in the cities where there was the best chance of staying hidden and getting a fairly regular meal.

Because we were chasing Russell and his wolves, we spent a good deal of time in the forests, tracking them through the endless, empty, snowy wastes. One night we came upon another Vampire living in a small hut in the woods. Godric was immediately wary but he insisted on approaching the Vampire.

The Vampire's reaction to us was instantaneous. He took us both for threats and, despite the fact that we outnumbered him and were both older than he was, he rushed us, weapon in hand. His end was swift and to my feeling pointless, but Godric insisted that we search the house.

Since I could not smell the scent of a Human I didn't understand why, there wasn't anything for us there and we hadn't truly fed in a few days; we needed to be finding the home of a peasant and drinking, not rummaging through the belongings of a dead lunatic. There was nothing worth having in the house, just as I'd suspected, but Godric didn't spend even a moment looking through what was there, instead he got down on his hands and knees and started feeling along the floor.

By the time I understood what he was looking for, he had found the trap door to the Vampires underground resting place and was walking down the stairs to the hidden cellar. I will never know how Godric understood what was happening, but two thousand years is a long time to hone ones instincts. He had probably figured out that a Vampire hiding himself so far away from anything, including a food source, was hiding something he did not want others to find and that, given that there was nothing for miles around to eat, it was probably another Vampire.

When we reached the bottom we found Ilina: naked, chained to the musty, squalid dirt floor and starving." I didn't even realize that I'd gasped until Eric looked up at me with soft eyes. He doesn't like sharing bad things from his past but he doesn't shield me from them either, he also knows that I'm a big enough girl to handle it so, after kissing my cheek lightly, he continues with the story.

"Godric was insistent on saving her, even though I argued it would be best to simply put her out of her misery. We had no one for her to feed on, we hadn't fed properly ourselves and of course back then there was no True Blood or bagged blood. I did not like the idea of weakening either of us to save a stranger. But looking back, even then, I suppose Godric was showing signs of becoming the person he was when you met him. He decided that we would each feed her some of our blood so that neither of us would be to greatly weakened and that way we would know if she meant to hurt us once she was better.

After a few nights she was well enough to speak and she told us her story. She'd been nothing more than a teenager, about Godric's age, sixteen or seventeen, when her maker had found her. His name was Janus. He'd come into her small provincial backwater and glamoured one of the local aristocrats, a Count, into believing that he was a long lost cousin come home to visit. While he stayed with his man, feeding off his Human servants and the other upper class in the area when they came for parties and social visits, he was introduced to the man's betrothed, Ilina. He fell instantly in love with her and attempted to woo her away from the Human man more than once.

For some reason, perhaps Janus was insane already at that point, he did not glamour her: he wanted her to love him for himself. When she refused him, he kidnapped and turned her, keeping her locked up and starving for the better part of fifty years, attempting to break her will. Until we found and freed her.

The old saying that what you save you become responsible for obviously made a great impression on Godric, because he took it upon himself, both of us, to teach the girl. She'd never hunted before, never had to worry about restraining herself when drinking from a Human (the few that Janus brought to her to keep her from truly dying she had simply drained away in her starvation), she had no idea how to blend in, how to glamour anyone, how to survive at all.

She stayed with Godric and I for two years and, during that time, Godric became her surrogate maker. She looked up to him and revered him almost as much as I did, treating him like a loved and respected father." Eric pins me with a heavy gaze at this point and I know we're getting to the part where Eric definitely does not play the father role. "But as much as she revered Godric, it was on me that she pinned her silly romantic notions. In her mind we'd both saved her but I was her white knight and she believed herself in love with me." Eric is swimming in that feeling of deep remorse right now and I can't help but prompt him.

"And you slept with her, furthering her infatuation with you." I don't bother to phrase it as a question because it's not.

"Yes. But not in the way that you're thinking." That gets a raised eyebrow from me and Eric takes a deep, unneeded breath before continuing.

"We're Vampires Sookie. We shared humans, we fucked them together, she and I, Godric and I, sometimes the three of us together. I did not love her. I did not have a relationship with her, she was simply there. For a while I didn't even realize that she felt the way she did for me, but truthfully even when I did know it didn't make much difference to me. I thought she was being young and silly and she would grow out of it. When she didn't, I was forced to tell her that I didn't and would never return her feelings. She was old enough and had learned enough to go off on her own at that point and, after that, she did. I never saw her again until tonight. I know that she kept in touch with Godric, but towards the end he seemed to distance himself from everything and everyone."

I thought it would be relieving to hear Eric say the words, but it isn't. Instead I just feel bad for this woman who endured so much and who he rejected so callously. And, oddly enough, the fact that he didn't love her, beautiful as she is and dramatic as the circumstances were, actually raises a niggle of insecurity in me. "What is it, lover?" Eric asks me after I've been quiet for a long minute or two.

"Why didn't you love her? Why do you love me? What is so much more special about me than her? She's beautiful and refined, a Countess for god's sake! What do I have, other than that I taste good?" Oh. Eric must feel my little epiphany because he tightens his arms around me incrementally, making sure that I don't do what I'm best at: bolting.

"No, Sookie. Do not for a single second ascribe my feelings for you to what you are. I did not find out that you were a Fairy or even taste your blood until we fought Russell the first time, and I was already in love with you then." Calming down slightly at his reassurance of something he's told me in one way or another before, I pin him with my original question.

"I don't know." Is his simple answer. "I never believed that I could love at all, or that I even knew what the emotion was, but whatever emotions I did have…they were wrapped up in Godric. At the time I believed that I could not feel anything for her because all my emotions, such as they were, belonged to him. But Godric was still alive when I met you and it did not stop the avalanche of feelings from coming down over my head. I don't know, Sookie, except to say that I must be meant to love you." On anyone else that would be a line and nothing more, but I don't even need our bond to know how true that statement is. Or how uncomfortable it still makes him sometimes. Looking deep into his eyes, big and blue and open with the truth of that statement, I kiss him long and hard, letting my arms wrap around his neck and feeling his tighten even farther around my waist.

"I love you so much!" I say in return, against his lips so that I don't have to break contact. "Please be careful!" Eric nods, our mouths still attached.

"I will. Do not leave the house and do not stray from Pam: she will keep you safe." He says. Nodding instead of saying anything more, I break our kiss to breathe and bury my head in Eric's neck, trying to convince myself that he isn't about to walk off into the night to play bait with no one but Bill, who hates him and wants him dead, and Ilina, who hates him and was sent to make him dead, at his side. Eric mirrors my action, burrowing his face into my neck, and we sit there wrapped in each other on the bed, wishing the clock would just stop.


	6. Chapter 6

_**A/N:**__ Okay, we're finally getting to some action in this chapter! I hope you all enjoy! I have to shout out my beautiful, wonderful, amazing beta, Sheknitsnicely, who beta'd this for me despite being sick as all get out right now! I love you, chicky, you're the best! And of course a huge thank you to everyone who's been reading, reviewing, alerting and favoriting! I'm really, really honored you guys are reading!_

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own them, currently Alan Ball (who has been forced to enroll in 'character parenting classes' as a means to prove he can be a fit 'creator') does. This isn't over yet, Mr. Ball!_

I never thought that there could be anything better than sex with Eric. If pressed I'll lie (cause, dang it, my Gran raised me to be a good, God fearing southern lady and good, God fearing southern ladies don't think about what it would be like to have sweaty, messy, ecstatic, come to Jesus sex with men who aren't their beaus), but the truth is I'd kinda figured that out even before we had sex…well before we had sex… like when I was still with Bill before we had sex.

But then we exchanged blood for the third time and suddenly there was something better than any other thing in this entire world: something better than pecan pie and Gran's fried chicken, and ice cream just because, something even better than sex with the most beautiful, passionate, amazing man in the world. There was something magical and mystical where there hadn't been anything before. Suddenly there was this place in my heart and my soul where a tiny bit of Eric had come home to live and, for a woman who'd once been a lonely and disliked little girl, with only the unpleasant, unwanted thoughts of other people for company, it felt as though there was this quiet, immovable little pool of strength that had come to fill me up and heal me and make sure that I would never be alone again.

And right now he's teaching me that it doesn't have to be just a little pool: it can open and expand and engulf me completely and I can do the same to that tiny little bit of me that lives so safe and happy inside of him. As we sit here, in our little bedroom under my house, waiting for time to greedily gobble up our last minutes together before Eric leaves to find Russell, our bond is wide open and…I have no words to say what it feels like. I wish I were clever enough to express something that's beyond simple feelings, beyond ordinary connection, something that's almost…communion. It's as if we're sharing our bodies between us. I feel all of him inside of me and I feel all of myself inside of him. It's like we meet and mingle and entwine even in the tiny space between us.

I feel as though I'm seeing and touching and breathing his love for me, his need for me, his confidence that, no matter what we face, we'll come out of it together, because we have each other, because we love each other, because we are each other. It's so beautiful, so amazing, so deeply fulfilling that our two hours seem to fly by as though they were just two minutes.

When Pam's voice echoes down the ladder from upstairs, telling Eric that it's time, I feel a slight bit of shock as though I'm a rubber band that was stretched wide snapping back into place, all of me flowing back into myself. Eric essence leaving me feels less sudden, more like an ebbing tide receding from my body, but it's no less unwelcome.

Understanding that this is going to happen whether I want it to or not though, I stand first, getting off Eric's lap and letting him get up as well. When he does he brings me back into his arms, bending his neck low to look down at me with one of those drilling stares of his, almost as though he's trying to make his already perfect Vampire sight drink in absolutely every detail of me, memorizing and cataloguing me down to my very pores, in case it's the last time he sees me.

I get a horrible sense of déjà vu as he stares at me and suddenly we're back in his office the first time we squared off against Russell, and it makes me sick to think of us here again. I stare up into Eric's piercing blue gaze and give him one of my own, my chin jutting out defiantly, my chest puffing up, and I say what I should have said to him the first time, what I wanted to even then, but was too much of a coward to own up to.

"Don't you dare say goodbye to me. I won't accept it." I tell him, desperate for him to understand. Eric's expression hardly changes but I can feel that he knows exactly what I mean and why I said it.

"I won't." Are his only words before claiming my mouth in the most ferocious, breathtaking kiss we've ever shared. It's the stronger, harder, more perfect version of our very first kiss and it's filled, this time, not with the hopeless passion of an unfulfilled wish that there could have been more before the end, but with the endless, fervent need to return as quickly as possible to what we finally have.

This time, when Eric's hands fist into my hair and clamp me to him by my waist, I don't struggle to get away or push back to make snide remarks: I attack him right back, grabbing his neck with my hand, sinking my nails into his hair and using the other one to take a fistful of the back of his shirt and lift it away so that I can rake my fingers down the silken skin of his back as we devour on another with our mouths and let them silently make promises about what they'll do to each other when he comes back.

When we break apart, I'm breathless and dizzy and disoriented and Eric almost looks as though he is too, even though that's not possible, and then his intense gaze softens like ice melting in the sun and his hand comes up to cup my cheek.

"I love you. This time I don't have any regrets." He says simply, softly, and I just smile back at him. I've never ever known anything with the certainty that I know he loves me, but hearing him say it will never get old. It's like opening a beautiful present you never even knew that you wanted until right then, each time.

"Come back to me." I tell him, leaning over and picking up his sword, holding it out to him with both hands. Eric takes it from me carefully, sure not to let the razor sharp edge of the blade cut me, and straps it to his back. With one final look between us, we head upstairs to find everyone else waiting.

Bill is standing by the door, just putting what I assume is a wooden bullet firing Berretta into an arm holster hidden underneath his jacket, Pam is pacing by the living room couch and Alcide is just getting off the phone.

"I talked to my guys," Alcide says, looking at Eric. "They'll stay and keep patrolling Sookie's land until you get back." Eric looks at Alcide and nods his head. It's probably as close to an actual thank you as Alcide is ever going to get from Eric, but being that they're both big, bad, tough guys, it seems like that's more than enough of an acknowledgement. Just to make it clear (and cause my Gran would have my hide if she knew I hadn't) I fill in the words the manly men can't seem to say.

"Thank you Alcide." Alcide smiles down on me and I feel a single moment of irritated jealousy from my bond with Eric before he tamps it down to worry about more important things.

"Don't let anyone in the house." He orders, looking at Alcide, Pam and I. We all nod and then he turns to Pam. They share a long, deep gaze between them and, for a moment, I almost think I see Pam's eyes go a little misty, before Eric says something to her in his native language.

As they're talking, I notice Bill staring at me out of the corner of my eye. He's giving me the sad puppy dog eyes. I haven't forgiven Bill, for any of the things he's done yet, but I feel as though I should say something to him. No matter what's happened before, right now he's going off with Eric to fight a Vampire so much older and stronger than him that it's not even funny, and I know that some part of him is doing it for me. Taking a deep breath, I turn to Bill and look at him full on.

"Be safe Bill." I say. Bill gives me a hurt look that says he had hoped for more, but knows he isn't going to get it, and so instead he just blinks once and decides to accept my well wishes gracefully for once.

"Thank you, Sookie." Pam and Eric finish their conversation and then time is finally up. Eric looks between Pam and me once more and then he and Bill take off into the night, disappearing so fast they're no more than blurry streaks to my eyes.

~*S*~

Well what do you know? Pam and I actually have something in common, besides being blond and having boobs: we both wait about as well as spoiled rotten rich kids on Christmas Eve. Although I have to say that her nervous tick of pacing a small track into the wood floors of my living room is probably less gross to watch than me sitting on the couch watching her and biting my nails into nubby little stubs.

Pam already told me, when I started to panic because I couldn't feel much of anything from Eric, that he'd muted both of our bonds so that, if he were to be injured, we wouldn't feel the echoes of his pain. Needless to say, that didn't really make me feel any better and was pretty much solely responsible for the decimation of the nails on my right and left index fingers, but I calmed down at least a little when I realized that, even though I wasn't getting emotions, I could still feel the hum of Eric's life. I guess that's something. So now there's nothing to do but wait and keep a death grip on that little bit of Eric inside of me.

It's looking like the next few hours are going to be an endless torture, consisting of nothing but pacing and nibbling, when all at once there's a commotion on the lawn. Pam stops her endless rounds to zip on over to the window and is just letting out an exasperated breath when Alcide joins her.

"Oh, for the love of Pete! Did you forget to tie her out back and leave her a dish of water before you left for the day?" I have no idea what Pam is talking about when I hear Alcide give her a deep, angry sounding growl and then go to open the door. And I wish I had no idea what they were talking about, when I see one of the Were guards Alcide brought with him, Human again, entirely naked and holding Debbie Pelt by her upper arm as she screams obscenities at him.

Alcide looks like he's about to open his mouth when Debbie cuts him off, yanking her arm out of the Were's grip and walking in without even stopping for breath. The Were just shrugs his shoulders and gives Alcide a sympathetic look before shifting back into his wolf form and trotting back off into the woods.

"I shoulda known! I can't believe I didn't just come here first! I go off to clear my head for a few days and you're already here shacking up with her!" Debbie yells at Alcide, pointing at me and looking down her nose as though I'm no better than the scum under her boot.

"Debbie, that ain't true! There ain't nothin' going on between me and Sookie. We got serious stuff happening here, okay?" Debbie just snorts at that, training her enraged eyes back on Alcide.

"I don't believe you! Even if you ain't fucking her now, I know you want to be. Go ahead and deny it!" When Alcide just looks down at the floor instead of saying anything in his own defense, I see Debbie flinch a little in pain and I want to be anywhere but sitting front and center for this particular couple's lovers quarrel. "That's what I thought. I know you think I'm stupid, Alcide, but I saw the way you were looking at her and that Vamp a hers in the woods." I feel myself going about ten shades of red at that little statement. God, can the floor not just open up and swallow me? Pam must have worn it down enough by now.

Alcide gives Pam and me both an embarrassed, apologetic look and then hauls Debbie off into my kitchen so they can argue with the illusion of privacy. Once they're gone, I settle back down on the couch, now worried, fearful, uncomfortable and mortified all at the same time and listen as Pam chuckles to herself and comes to sit next to me.

"I had no idea you were such a dirty, dirty little Fairy Princess, Sookie. First the orgasmic screaming last night while Bill and I were upstairs and now I find out you were giving a free show in the woods. You know, if you're really serious about pursuing this little kink, there are several very reputable clubs in Shreveport where you could go to find a willing audience without having to risk mosquito bites in those…hard to scratch places." Cheese and rice, if the floor won't swallow me can lightening at least strike in my living room? It doesn't even have to strike me. I'd be just FINE with it striking Pam instead!

"Didn't Eric tell you to behave before he left?" I ask her, crossing my arms under my chest and giving her a death stare through slitted eyes. Pam just laughs at that and shakes her pretty blond head.

"No, he told me to make sure you don't die. He never said I couldn't have any fun while doing it!" With that, Pam looks down at her clothes and her expression sobers slightly. "On the off chance that this little siege lasts more than a single night, I'm going upstairs to use Eric's laptop. I'm sure if I pay enough I can get _some_ reputable clothing store to deliver with less than twenty-four hour's notice." That said, Pam's off the couch and up the stairs and I'm left alone to listen to Debbie and Alcide do a horrible job of keeping their voices down.

I think I must have been lulled into a humiliation induced stupor, listening to the argument in the kitchen, which included a lot of vulgar accusations from Debbie and a lot of sputtering from Alcide, because the sound of a weapon cocking brings me snapping back to attention as though I've just been smacked on the head. My first thought is that I could not possibly have heard what I heard, but that hope gets completely crushed when I hear the sounds of Alcide pleading with Debbie in a small voice from the kitchen.

Getting up, I rush across the dining room, but I'm just not fast enough, and I reach the kitchen as the gun goes off. I only have a split second to process the sight of Alcide slumping to the floor, bleeding profusely from a sickening chest wound and Debbie standing a few feet away, the barrel of Jason's Binneli shotgun smoking in her hands before things get even worse.

To the tune of wolves snarling and baying in the woods, I watch Debbie turn the shotgun on me and hear the sound of her chambering another bullet. I start to lift my hands and hope like hell that they light up just as a streak rushes into the kitchen. The shotgun goes off but the bullet hits the little hanging lamp over the dining room table as Pam shoves into Debbie hard, knocking off her aim.

I try to rush over to Alcide to see if he's still alive while Pam and Debbie are tussling on the floor, when I hear a sound that can only be the living room windows shattering and the thumping of large, heavy feet hitting the wooden floor. I don't even have time to turn before big hands are grabbing me and hauling me against a bloody, naked torso.

I start to struggle and scream when a huge man, as naked as the guy holding me, shoves a dirty wet cloth in front of my face. I try not to breath it in, but the smell of it is so strong that it makes my eyes water. My vision starts to go blurry as Pam pins Debbie beneath her, ready to strike with her fangs, but at the last second Debbie gets a hand free and, out of nowhere, pulls a little aerosol can and sprays Pam in the face. Pam rears back, blindly, screaming and I see that her face and neck are covered in little shiny pieces of something and her skin is burning off.

The sound of someone rummaging through one of the kitchen drawers distracts me and I'm just woozy enough at this point to waste a second wondering why the bad guys are in need of a mixing spoon or a cheese grater, until I see one of the naked bloody Weres holding Gran's wooden rolling pin over Pam's still screaming form and bringing it down hard over her head, sending her into unconsciousness.

Whatever was on the rag starts to really affect me then and I barely even realize that I'm being thrown over someone's shoulder and carried out of the house. The last thing that I see as the world goes black is the bloody remains of some of the Weres that were guarding us strewn in oozing piles around the front yard….

When I come to again, the floor beneath me feels like it's vibrating. My head is pounding like something is trying to escape from the inside and I feel sick to my stomach. The world is a huge, dark blur, but I think I'm in the back of some sort of van and I can just make out what looks like the unconscious lump of Pam chained up, in what must be silver, next to me and the shadow of Debbie Pelt sitting on my other side, a bottle and a rag in her hand.

"You're not supposed to be awake yet, you man stealing bitch." She spits at me as she starts to wet the cloth with the contents of the bottle.

"I'm not after your man, Debbie. I love the one I have!" I try to sound indignant, but I'm barely getting enough sound out to be heard.

"Won't matter for much longer anyway." Debbie laughs at that as though it's the funniest thing she's ever said.

"Eric will come for us. Even if you keep drugging me, the second Pam wakes up he'll be able to track us through their bond." I hope that came out defiant. I'd rather sound bitchy than scared shitless.

"Oh, believe me, Russell's counting on it."


	7. Chapter 7

_**A/N:**__ Here's the next chapter. It's a bit short, but I wanted to let Sookie and Pam have their "awww how cute" bonding moment before the fur starts flying. Also I'm ridiculously proud of myself for having worked in Pam's brilliant speech from the season finale. So, I wholeheartedly admit that the part you recognize is blatantly plagerized. But really, I would never presume to think I could say it better than Pam!_

_Thanks to everyone who's been reading, reviewing, alerting and favoriting! Y'all rock my socks and to my brilliant, wonderful beta Sheknitsnicely who's just amazing in every way!_

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own them, Alan Ball does. However the judge in this case extended Eric and Sookie's stay in foster care for the duration of this trial when witnesses for the defense: Bill Compton and Lorena Krasiki were declared unfit to testify on Mr. Ball's behalf and may in fact be charged as accessories to the crime!_

The first thing I notice is the feeling of something small and cold tapping me over and over again. It's insistent and constant and won't let me be. Then there's the realization that I'm wet: wet, cold and achy all over.

Groaning, I try to open my eyes, but everything feels like it's happening in slow motion and even the slightest movement makes my head hurt as though someone's driving an ice pick through my temple.

I just want to go back to sleep. Maybe if I sleep long enough I'll wake up warm in my soft bed and my pretty floral sheets that Eric made me promise never to tell anyone he's agreed to sleep in, with my Vampire naked and wrapped around me.

As the cold thing taps me though, I realize that sleeping isn't a possibility anymore and groan in pain as I finally force myself to open my eyes. The sight that greets me is about as frightening as it could possibly be, but it's not unexpected given everything that's happened tonight.

I find myself sitting on a cold stone floor, my hands chained above my head and a steel band, attached to the wall circling my waist. The small, cold thing tapping me is smelly, scummy, little drops of water falling from a cracked pipe in the ceiling and hitting me in the face every second or so and across from me, also chained in the same way, is Pam.

"Pam," I croak out, my voice rough from whatever shit our kidnappers made me breathe in, "are you awake?" I ask, thanking God that Vampires have such acute hearing, because what's coming out sounds a great deal more like the croaking of an asthmatic frog than the voice of a Human. Pam looks at me, and I can see that even though her face and neck are still badly burned, she's apparently healed enough to see again.

"I'm fine." She drawls out, her voice sounding pissed and disgusted at our current situation. "How bout you?" She asks after a second, probably realizing that it's customary to ask the question back.

"My head is killing me and I still feel a little woozy, but otherwise I'm alright. As long as they don't drug me again I think I'll be okay." I say, rambling on because I don't know what else to do. Despite this not being my first time chained in someone's filthy torture basement, I'm still not so used to it that it feels 'old hat'.

Before I can say anything too stupid though, there's a creaking sound from somewhere above us and then a square of bright light at what looks like the top of a pair of stairs. Two figures stand silhouetted in the light and one of them begins to chuckle as though he just opened his Christmas present.

"Oh good, Ms. Stackhouse, you're awake. I was so hoping that I wouldn't have to wait too much longer." Even with the light behind him, masking his form in shadow, the whiskey smooth southern drawl of Russell Edgington is unmistakable.

Without waiting for a reply, Russell flicks a light switch at the top of the stairs and the basement is flooded with harsh, bright florescent light. At first it's blinding and I have to scrunch my eyes closed, causing my head to pound even more, so that my eyes can adjust. By the time I open them again, Russell is standing in the large space between Pam and I, Debbie standing by his side.

"Thank you dear. Go on upstairs and make sure the others are doing their jobs." Russell says, dismissing Debbie, who sneers openly at me before turning and running back upstairs. Once the door is closed behind her Russell snorts. "Dumb as a box a nails, all of them, but good for cannon fodder, and prolific breeders. You can just keep throwing them at your problem and you'll never run out." He says conversationally as he turns to me.

My mind is still woozy, but pretty much no amount of drugs could make Russell's appearance palatable. Whether he hasn't fed much since he busted out or it's just gonna take him a really, really long time to heal I don't know, but he doesn't look much different than the last time I saw him, covered in black, crispy looking skin and missing both his fangs.

"Well, now that you're both here and awake I don't think there's any more time to waste." Russell chuckles to himself before walking up to me. Bending over, he reaches into my jeans. I try to kick him away but I'm still too disoriented to do much more than flail my foot out. "Now, now Ms. Stackhouse, calm yourself." Russell says, pulling my cell phone out of my pocket. "I assure you, I'm no threat to you…at least not that way!" Russell laughs at his own joke as he scrolls through the menus on my phone.

A moment later he puts it to his ear and I can hear the faint sound of ringing. After only two rings, the person he's calling picks up and I faintly hear the sound of my Viking desperately saying my name on the other end.

"No, no Eric. It's not Sookie, but she is here with me, as is your child." Russell barely has his sentence finished before I hear the sounds of Eric screaming on the other end.

"Watch your language boy! Is that any way to speak to your elder?" Russell bites back sharply, sliding from amused ease to scary threats with the versatility only a bona fide nut job can possess. "Now, I am sorry I had to cut our amusing little game of hide and seek short tonight, but honestly at my age, you understand that things tend to get old quite fast.

I must thank you though, I did think it would take a few more nights of playing around before you left both of your lovely women all but alone in the same place. But then it appears you've put your year to good use. I hadn't expected to find that you'd secured the lovely Ms. Stackhouse for your own so quickly. Ah, Compton was such a whiney little bitch, I suppose it wasn't that hard." Russell pauses, doing what could once probably have been described as raising an enquiring eyebrow, but now looks more like a bunch of hard skin, lumping up and cracking together and I hear something faintly on the other end. Whatever it is it makes Russell absolutely belly laugh.

"Oh wonderful, Bill is there too! Do say hello for me! You know Eric, now that I have you here on the phone, I'm wondering if you won't let me pick your brain a little? You don't mind, do you? You see, one of the burdens of getting as old as I am is that you start to think about the road not taken and all. And while I was enjoying all that free time you so generously saw fit to give me, I started to think about all those decisions that seem so tiny and insignificant at the time, but end up making a huge impact on the future. You see, I'm at one of those crossroads right now, and I thought I might ask for your advice. I just can't decide if I shouldn't get a pack of toothpicks and play a game of darts using your progeny as the board, or rip the head off your little fairy and drink her like a slushy? Do you have any preference?" The shiver that runs up my spine at Russell's casually spoken threat is almost enough to terrify me sober. I don't hear Eric's response, but Russell just laughs at it.

"Well Eric, since you're not going to be of any help, I think I'll just have to hang up now and decide for myself. As both of your lovely, lovely ladies are awake, I expect I'll be seeing you quite soon. I truly can't wait." Russell hisses the last before throwing my phone against the far wall, hard enough to smash it into a million tiny pieces.

"Well, now that's done, I think I'll have a little drink before the last of my guests arrive… wouldn't want to be peckish when all the fun starts." Russell walks over to me and, for one horrible moment, I think he's going to bite me, but then he seems to think better of it and steps back. "No, I think I'll save you for dessert. I'm sure you'll taste even better with your precious Viking watching on helplessly." He says, turning around and walking up the stairs, seemingly distracted by his plans for when Eric gets here. Once the door shuts, Pam sits up a little straighter and pins me with a desperate look.

"Sookie, we have to get out of here. I can feel Eric; he's nearly insane with rage right now and, if we don't find a way to get free and help him, he might very well do something stupid." She says, talking to me really slowly and simply, as though I'm a particularly stupid kid.

"Oh." Is my brilliant response, but the truth is that I'm still so drugged up right now that things are not entirely coherent. Much better than a few minutes ago but far, far from one hundred percent. Pam's words make me realize that the Weres who took us must have given me something extremely strong because I can't actually feel Eric at all right now and I'm having a hard time even concentrating enough to focus in on the hum of his life.

"Yeah, oh!" Pam retorts, exasperatedly. "Can you hit my chains with your light?" Pam asks, dropping the bitchy for a second and actually looking hopeful. I nod my head and try to summon my light, but after a few minutes of trying as hard as I can to focus nothing happens. I'm just too damn drugged still.

"I'm sorry Pam." I say, defeated. I'm utterly humiliated when I realize that my face isn't just wet from the goddamn annoying water that keeps hitting my face anymore, but from my own frustrated, hopeless tears. What are we going to do? Eric is going to come in here, irrational, enraged and thinking about as clearly as a rabbit with his paw in a trap and Russell will kill Pam and me slowly while he watches and then he'll kill Eric. Oh God!

"You're sorry? You're fucking sorry!" Pam starts to spit at me and I see her eyes go crazy pissed. "ARG! I am so fucking OVER you Sookie! I'm so fucking over you and your unbelievably stupid name and your oh so precious, good for fucking nothing Fairy vagina, that MY Eric has his face so far in he can't see reason or common fucking sense!" I flinch at Pam's horrible words. I knew she disliked me, but I never thought she hated me this much. "FUCK YOU, SOOKIE!" She keeps on ranting. "I've been with Eric over a hundred years! I've watched him fuck supermodels and princesses and spit their bones out when he was finished! How can he lose his fucking mind and end up getting us both killed over some hick waitress from Bum Fuck's Asshole Louisiana named Sookie?" Pam's words might have been meant to scare me or make me feel worthless and guilty but they don't. They just make me angry. How dare she?

"Shut the fuck up you bitter, burnt up cunt!" I scream back at her. Without realizing it, my anger sort of wells up in me at that point, my rage seeming to focus and melt the drunk feeling that was clinging to me and, out of nowhere, my light bursts out of my hands and hits Pam over and over again. I scream in shock when I realize what I'm doing and stop, but not before Pam actually falls over. The silver chains that held her crack into pieces as her body weight takes their remains with her down the wall and to the floor. "Shit! Pam?" I say, after a long moment in which Pam lays perfectly still, looking as though she's unconscious again.

Slowly, slowly Pam picks herself up off the floor and stalks over to me. At first I'm terrified that she's going to physically hurt me and I can feel my hands getting itchy and hot again, but instead of touching me she crouches down in front of me and pins me with a piercing laser like gaze. We just stay like that, frozen in time, as I wait for her to drop her fangs and tear out my throat or maybe pull back her fist and put it through my sternum and then she just smiles at me. Not a malevolent 'I'm going to use your finger bones for toothpicks' kind of smile, but a real, genuine, happy smile.

"You done good, Fairy Princess." She says, before reaching up with still shaky hands and cracking the shackles around my wrists into pieces. As my hands come down, limp and a little numb, Pam takes a hold of the big bar around my waist. "I never, ever thought I would see Eric fall in love, I never thought he had it in him. But if he had to, if it had to be anyone…I'm glad it's you. I won't lie, when you were with Compton I thought you were an annoying, bratty little breather who never knew when to shut her mouth in front of her betters. But you took Eric in when you didn't have to and kept him safe, you broke a witches curse and overcame her possession to save him from burning to death and you chose him over anybody else and along the way you proved that you're a fierce, loyal, mouthy bitch: four qualities I happen to admire greatly. As long as you fight for him and fight beside him Sookie, I'll fight for and beside you." With that, Pam breaks the binding around my waist and helps me stand up.

We just kind of stare at each other again for a moment and I suddenly realize that she didn't mean any of what she said before. Well, maybe she did, a little, once, but she doesn't anymore. She was just trying to make me angry cause by now we all know that's the quickest way to get 'Fairy Sookie' to wake up and come on out to play. Without even thinking about it I throw my arms around Pam and give her a huge bear hug. At first she stands there, shocked, still as stone, clearly stunned that I'm daring to touch her, but then I feel her tentatively put her arms around me too, patting my back lightly. Pulling away after a second I look up at her and blush a little.

"Thanks, Pam." I say, meaning both for the kick in the pants and for the acceptance. Pam just nods, but then at the last second she pins me with a raised eyebrow.

"Don't mention it. Oh and Sookie, you really should lighten up and grow a funny bone, since you're a part of this little family now." She says, finally stepping back and surveying the mess we're in. "Now pull your shit together, Princess. We need to find a way out of here!" With that Pam starts pulling boxes away from the walls, looking for some way out of our little prison.


	8. Chapter 8

_**A/N:**__ Here's the next chapter. I was wondering, at the point where this chapter ends, if I should make a quick end and leave things open for a sequel or if I should just roll it all into one and keep on going. I figured that it's hard enough to pick up the second story in a series, no less the third, so I would just keep this puppy rolling a little longer. Therefore, we're getting to the second half starting next chapter and taking on the Authority! I hope you enjoy the first big fight! Also, there are a couple of things that might seem incongruous in this chapter (like Alcide appearing healthy and well after we left him with a sucking chest wound two chapters ago) but all will be explained as we go on. This is all Sookie POV so we'll only learn things as she does._

_Okay, I have only to say thank you to my fabu beta, Sheknitsnicely, who not only beta'd this sucker while on vacation but, unlike me, was smart enough to vacation somewhere where they actually have internet access! This is why I bow to her and her generous, brilliant nature! And to thank everyone who's been reviewing, favorting, and alerting! Thank you a thousand times over!_

_**Disclaimer:**__ I don't own them, however it remains to be decided if Alan Ball will continue to retain custody now that he has officially been charged and arrested for his crimes against innocent and trusting characters who looked up to him for guidance, fatherly love and protection. I hope you, Bill and Lorena enjoy your joint cell and matching orange jumpsuits, Mr. Ball!_

Pam and I comb the entirety of the basement, from top to bottom, and come up with zip. There were no windows being hidden by the boxes, no doors to the outside, nothing. The only way out seems to be the door at the top of the stairs and Pam and I rule that out in the first minute. With my quirk, I can tell that there are two guards standing about ten feet from the door, not directly guarding it but probably guarding the hall it's in, which means that we wouldn't be done fighting them before back up came.

Even though I'm still groggy, I can tell that most of what Debbie and the other Weres gave me must be out of my system by now: I'm feeling more coherent and my bond with Eric is returning to normal. I can feel the hum of his life, the nearly terrifying intensity of his anger, his desperate impatience to get to us and the fact that he's moving towards us, quickly, but slower than if he were flying, which means that he's probably driving and that hopefully means he's bringing the cavalry with him. Pam thinks they're still about a half hour away from us.

Pam and I both take a moment to send Eric calm, in the hopes that some reassurance that we're fine for the moment might help him better control the near overwhelming need for violence that's pouring off of him in angry, blood soaked waves.

I'm beginning to feel utterly hopeless when Pam comes across something that has her smiling and gesturing for me to come over and look.

"It's just a crack, Pam." I say, looking at the jagged line etched into the stone near the top of the wall. It's a deep crack, I'll give it that, but a crack nonetheless.

"Yes, Sookie, brilliant deduction skills there, but you're not allowed to build basements that are completely underground in Louisiana because of the water table. I'm fairly certain wherever we are, we're still in the state, which means that if you blast the wall with your light I should be able to pick it apart and hopefully that will put us outside." Pam looks at me expectantly and I nod at her, but I'm still worried.

"Russell's seen me use my light before. What if this is some elaborate game he's playing with us. You're wounded and I'm drugged. What if he's just trying to get us to expend our last bits of energy so that we'll be useless when it comes time to fight?" Pam turns to stare at me full on and I see something that actually looks like admiration shining in her eyes.

"Anything's possible with that crispy little toad, but it doesn't change the fact that I'd rather be put down trying to escape than sit here, helpless and useless, waiting to be used as bait." Considering that's a statement I can completely get behind, I decide to just go with what Pam's got cooking and stop trying to second guess the lunatic.

Pointing my hand at the wall, I start to think about all the terrible things that might happen here and I concentrate on them hard, trying to smell the blood and feel the gore and, within a moment or two, a concentrated ball of white light flashes out of my hand and soundlessly hits the wall, right on target. The stone crumbles and Pam uses a few boxes propped against the wall to support her weight as she climbs up and starts digging away the pieces. As I watch her, trying to stay ready if she needs me again, I hit on a silly thought, but one that I can't help asking.

"Wait, if you're not allowed to build below ground in Louisiana then how come y'all have a torture dungeon under Fangtasia?" I feel like that's a totally valid question, but Pam actually stops digging for a second to give me a look that couldn't be any more plainly understood if she had just come out and asked if I were a lobotomy recipient.

"Sookie…" Pam says, dragging out my name nice and slow, as if she's talking to a mentally ill child, "Do you really think that Eric went through legal channels to obtain permission to build his torture dungeon? Since you're hanging with us now, maybe I should teach you some of the rules." Pam says, turning back to her digging. "Rule number one is do what you need to and glamour the necessary people to forget what they helped you do, or ignore what they saw you've done afterwards. The Were contractors who built it for us don't remember doing it and the building permits and inspection people were glamoured to forget it's there. It's a secret, which is also why we don't put large neon signs on the wall that say 'This way to torture dungeon'. No one is supposed to know it exists so it doesn't matter if it was built legally or not." Yeah, okay. Guess I better not tell anyone about the cubby either then.

"Well couldn't Russell have done the same here?" I think we're pretty much arguing to pass the time and keep from flipping out, but I can't help trying to score one in the logic department. It's not happening tonight though.

"Wherever we are, I'm thinking Russell doesn't own it since Sophie-Anne would never have let him buy land on her turf and I doubt Russell was conducting real estate transactions under ten feet of concrete." As if to prove her point, Pam pulls out the last bit of crushed up masonry and fresh, cold air starts to seep into the basement. Pam digs a little more and soon enough we've got a hole big enough to crawl through. Bending over, Pam picks me up as though I weigh nothing and lifts me so that I can get into the space and crawl out, and then she's following me.

When we're both through, we crouch just outside of the entrance and try to figure out where we are. Where we _were_ is a large dilapidated looking farm factory that's pretty much falling to pieces (how stereotypically super villain of Russell) and there's pretty much nothing around us: just lots of old, out of use farmland and, about three hundred feet away, the tree line into the woods.

"We have to make it into the trees." Pam whispers to me. "If we get there, we can get up into one of the taller ones and wait until Eric comes." I nod at Pam, but I can tell she doesn't like the idea of making a dash for it. I've had a lot of very old, very powerful Vampire blood, but I'm still slower than her. Just as she's standing, I think of something that might actually help us out.

"Pam, what if I tried moving us into the trees, like how I was able to get from Bill's lawn to Eric on the pyre?" Pam looks at me skeptically.

"Do you know how you did that?" She asks. I shake my head.

"No, but I'm willing to try." Whatever Pam would have said is cut off by the sound of snarling. Looks like I won't be trying the Fairy popping thing anytime soon. The wolf begins running towards us and Pam, knowing there isn't much else to do, picks me up and starts running with me like I'm a sack of potatoes.

Pam is fast, but Russell's Weres, hopped up on three thousand year old Vampire blood, are fast too and the one that was chasing us is joined by three others who've come out of the trees to try and surround us. Pam is going at a good clip and I almost begin to believe we'll make it, when I hear a sickening crunching sound and realize that something has clamped down on my ankle.

I scream out in agony as Pam drops me, probably realizing that trying to pull me when my foot is trapped in the iron jaws of an angry wolf, who's pretty much my size, will only injure me more. Working more on instinct than on actual thought, I raise my hand and blast the wolf, sending him flying a few feet in the opposite direction, but by then we're surrounded, and not just by the wolves, but by Russell and Debbie and at least twenty Vampires. They all materialize out of the darkness and suddenly everything stops.

Pam crouches in front of me, taking up a defensive position and trying to look defiantly unconcerned, but her expression soon morphs into total terror when the Vampires with Russell scent my blood, which is spilling out of my crushed ankle at an alarming rate, and begin to snarl at us, dropping their fangs and gnashing their teeth.

"I'll give you this," Russell says, laughing, "you're a loyal child. I wouldn't risk my skin defending a blood bag for anyone." Pam snarls back at Russell, showing her fangs and giving him the middle finger without ever dropping her guard.

"Fuck you!" Pam spits back. With that, Russell closes the distance between him and I in one giant Vampire movement that's not even visible to my eyes and pulls me off the ground by my hair, shoving Pam and sending her flying onto the ground a few feet away, where four of Russell's wolves have her surrounded before she can even try to get up, snarling down at her, saliva dripping teeth bared and ready to strike on command.

"Let them go!" I hear an incensed, barely recognizable voice shout from the distance and suddenly Eric, Bill and Alcide are rushing onto the lawn with a bunch of Bill's Human guards trailing behind them. I don't know whether to be relieved that they're here or not. The Humans are no match for a pack of 'V'd' up wolves and blood thirsty Vampires, wooden bullets or no wooden bullets, and the idea of Eric doing something stupid or life threatening to save Pam and I just twists my gut. My emotional distress starts merging with my physical one and, for a moment, I'm overcome with lightheaded nausea.

"Eric, finally. I was beginning to worry you'd got stuck in a traffic jam or some such thing." Russell drawls, as Eric and company stop just feet from us. Eric looks over Pam and I, seeing the visible signs of our injuries, and I can feel his murderous rage go almost berserker. He's holding it down as best as he can but it's clear that eventually he'll lose control; he just won't be able to keep his monster at bay for much longer.

"Enough of this! Let them go and fight me." Eric says, holding up his sword and challenging Russell. The gesture looks terrifying but Russell only laughs.

"Fight you? I don't want to fight you, Eric. I'm three thousand years old; fighting you and your pathetic little band of merry men here is too easy. Where's your sense of drama? Where's your flair for poetic punishment? I have no intention of fighting you. I intend to do to you what you did to me. I'm going to kill these women who mean so much to you, right before your very eyes, and then I'm going to let you live so I can watch it drive you slowly - or quickly, I'm not picky - insane.

Killing Talbot was a stupid, stupid mistake boy. You should never take the only person that someone loves from them, when you still have people you love walking around." Having no fangs still, Russell produces a knife from inside his jacket pocket and holds it up to my throat, getting ready to slit me from ear to ear.

Russell says something to Eric, no doubt a taunt about how he should say goodbye to me, but I don't hear it. If ever I needed my Fairy powers I need them now and I've learned enough to know that they come on when my brain turns off. It's a hard thing to do normally, turn off your thinking brain, but when you're as scared as I am right now it gets easier. I just sink into that terror and start concentrating on where I want to be. The only place I want to be ever, anywhere, is by Eric's side, with him always.

I dimly notice Russell positioning the knife just right and Eric screaming like a mad man when all of the sudden the air around me gets wavy and weird and my ears start to clog with pressure. There's a loud popping noise and when I open my eyes, everyone on the field is frozen in place as they see that Russell's hands are now empty and that I've re-materialized on the ground at Eric's feet.

The frozen astonishment lasts only a split second but it's enough to give the missing member of our party, Ilina and her Authority Vampires, enough time to show up behind Russell's men, with Eric and Bill and the Human guards in front, which leaves Russell, his wolves and Vampires surrounded and suddenly all hell breaks loose. Ilina charges from behind, Bill and his men from in front. Alcide throws Pam a silver bullet loaded gun, which she catches deftly while the wolves surrounding her are still shocked and then quickly strips and shifts into his wolf form, lunging through the melee to fight Debbie. Eric grabs me by the arm, pulling me back away from the fight, telling me to stay there and stay out of things with a drilling, authoritative stare before running into the already bloody mess, cutting a path to Russell, who stands waiting for him.

In the movies, fight scenes like this are always set in slow motion to passion stirring music as the camera loves each and every one of the heroes and their respective villains for a moment or two before moving on to the next pair. In reality, the truth is that everything happens so fast and there's so much noise and flying gore and body parts, that it's hard to tell what's happening to any one person at any given moment.

I see Pam, fighting some of the Weres, a flash that looks like Bill tackling a Vampire much bigger than him, I see Ilina using her spiked heel as a stake, driving it into a Vampire she's brought down with a rib cracking round house, and I see the Human guards firing almost blindly as they move through the mess. But mostly my concentration is focused on a fight that's moving so fast it's nearly impossible to see.

Russell and Eric dance around each other, more as colors against the night than as actual figures. It's clear that, even fangless and burnt up, Russell is still a formidable enemy and, as the seconds tick by, it seems that Eric won't find any advantage. Russell has nothing but the dagger he tried to kill me with, but he gets close enough to wound Eric several times and lands a few deep and angry looking cuts to Eric's legs and arms that send my Bonded's blood spraying out onto the grass. Eric is able to get a blow in here or there but his successes are far fewer and, as I watch, my panic starts to mount.

It's only a matter of time before one of Russell's wolves or Vampires gets close enough to help him. What then? If anyone else joins their fight, Eric won't be able to handle them both. Suddenly, over the actual fight that's happening in front of me, I see one of Russell's Vamps rushing up and landing a blow from behind that brings Eric to his knees and then watch as Russell uses Eric's own sword to sever his head from his body.

The imagined death of the man I love is so real to my eyes, the panic and anguish it brings with it are so tangible, that I hardly notice as my body starts to light up again, angry, grief stricken and red. Standing on my injured leg, not even feeling the pain of my crushed ankle I let out a horrible scream and, just as Eric lands a good cut to Russell's chest, stopping him long enough for Russell to become visible to my eyes, I let my light out and it hits Russell like a flame thrower igniting a pile of dry tinder.

Again, everything seems to stop for a second as everyone just watches Russell burn from a flame that wasn't there moments before. Then, as if remembering the stakes, Eric lifts his sword and brings it down in an arching motion, taking the head off of the screaming, burning Vampire in one stroke.

As Russell's remains flame on the ground, most of the wolves flee into the woods and the Vampires who can follow as well. Those that aren't so lucky are taken out by our little band easily.

When it's over, there's only Debbie left, still Human and wounded, crouching in terror under Alcide who snarls at her, baring his teeth but refusing to land the final blow. It's almost a shock when Pam rushes up to them in the now still field and, with pitiless ease, raises the silver bullet gun Alcide gave her, firing one shot directly between Debbie's eyes and blowing off the top of her head. Blood and brain matter splatter over both Alcide and Pam, but she doesn't even seem to notice as she turns to him.

"Don't make me clean up your shit again, dog." We all stand frozen for one more tense moment before everyone seems to realize the fight is over and then it's as if we all take a collective breath, needed or unneeded. Eric rushes over to me just as I collapse back onto the ground, the pain in my leg taking my full attention now that the fight is over.

Catching me deftly and lowering me to the ground, Eric pins me, not with the expression of happiness or thanks or love I was expecting, but with a look of total and complete panic.

"I told you to stay out of it!" He yells at me, his eyes slightly crazed looking. The pain in my ankle coupled with the adrenaline leaving my body and my exhaustion from letting 'Fairy Sookie' out to play leave me trembling and weak in his arms, desperately needing his love and his comfort and not understanding the coldness of his response. He was in danger; he wouldn't have won against Russell. How could he expect me to just sit by and watch?

"I had to. I couldn't let him kill you!" I answer back weakly. Eric lowers his head looking defeated and hopeless, and I feel our bond flood with anguished terror as someone speaks from off in the background.

"Not lethal to Vampires indeed. It was foolish to try to lie to me, Eric." Ilina says, her form swimming into my vision as she comes up behind us.


	9. Chapter 9

_**A/N:**__ Okay, we're getting a bit angsty in this chapter so I just wanted to preface it by saying two things. One, that all the angst will be resolved next chapter- Sookie and Eric have a lot to do and it won't get done unless they're a team. And two, that, again, we only see things in this story through Sookie's eyes. We're counting on her to interpret the motivations and mental states of all the other characters correctly for us. It doesn't mean that she always will though. Eric is going to be put through the absolute wringer this chapter and even though Sookie can sense his emotions, she doesn't have a direct window into his thoughts. So she can feel anger, for instance, but that doesn't mean she automatically knows who it's aimed at. Eric won't get the chance to speak for himself until the next chapter, so please bear that in mind when reading. Sookie can only give us best guesses at why Eric feels what he feels or acts the way he does until he tells her what's going on in his enigmatic Viking brain._

_Other than that, I have to just thank my wonderful beta, Sheknitsnicely, who not only words smiths this puppy so y'all can read it, but helps me sift through the 10 million plot ideas in my brain and sort through the bad for the good! And thank you to everyone who's been reviewing, favorting and alerting! My gratefulness knows no bounds!_

_**Disclaimer:**__ I don't own them. During his arraignment, Mr. Ball (who retains all rights until he is proven guilty in a court of law) was told that if he was found guilty he could face up to 25 years in jail for his crime or be sentenced to one week in Fangtasia's torture dungeon with Pam. At which point Mr. Ball pleaded for a life sentence instead, begging and crying as he was led out of the court room._

Ever since I followed Claudine into my possible futures, I've been playing a little game with myself, cataloging all the very stupid things I've done in my short life and trying to pick out, which one of them I should crown 'Dumbest Decision Ever'. It' a long, long list to be honest.

In the last two weeks alone there's been: taking a Fairy's hand and trusting that she had my best interests at heart and wouldn't be kidnapping me back to her realm to push out chubby little part Fairy/ part Human babies against my will (that one turned out okay), trusting Debbie Pelt, former V addict and member of Russell Edgington's Were pack to take me to Moon Goddess to rescue Eric (that one turned okay for me, but not so much for her), disobeying Eric and letting Debbie Pelt, former V addict and member of Russell Edgington's Were pack into my house (that one turned out okay for her, but not so much for me) and getting in the middle of the fight that just happened (the outcome of my decision having yet to be determined).

I should have known. I should have thought first. Eric is not Bill. Eric would never tell me not to fight with him, not to fight beside him, if there wasn't a damn good reason. It's the same reason that he insisted that I stay behind when he went after Russell earlier tonight. It's not that he thought I couldn't help - clearly I could have been a great help - it's that in helping I've exposed more of my powers to Ilina, who is supposed to believe that, while I'm a bit Fairy, I'm not Fairy enough to either be beneficial to Vampires or lethal to them. It's just that watching everything that happened, I lost control. The mere thought that Eric might have died just consumed me and I acted without stopping to consider why he would try to order me to stay out of the fight.

Now she's seen me teleport and toast a three thousand year old Vampire into a gooey little marshmallow all in less than ten minutes, and as she stands over us, a triumphant little smirk painting her face, I know that no matter what, we're all going to pay for my actions.

"This changes things, Eric." She says, her voice level with just a hint of menace. My Vampire, who's still crouched over me, turns to face her, baring his fangs and hissing as he takes up a defensive stance in front of me. Out of the corner of my eyes I can see Pam and Bill trying to edge closer to us, but being prevented by Ilina's men. Oddly, Alcide doesn't even seem to be paying attention, choosing instead to continue to stare at Debbie's half headless corpse as though it might get up and start walking around again.

"You will not touch her. I will not allow you to take her!" Eric says through gritted teeth. Ilina looks down on him, without even bothering to acknowledge the threat he poses to her. Instead she simply quirks an eyebrow and laughs softly in our faces.

"You really love her." It's a statement, not a question, and so she continues on, not waiting for or expecting an answer. "I never would have thought it, but after tonight it seems undeniable. Since that is the case, I think I may have an offer for you." Eric stands from his crouch, but stays firmly between Ilina and me and doesn't bother to retract his fangs.

"What do you want?" He spits, a twinge of desperation leaking into his voice even as I feel him utterly swimming in a sea of turmoil through our bond. I want to send him my love, my reassurance, more than anything, but I'm afraid to. The feeling of guilt swimming inside of me right now is almost overwhelming and I'm terrified that, if I send Eric my love, he'll only push back with his anger and disappointment at me.

"The Vampires you see before you, all of them, are no longer loyal to the Authority. We continue to work for them, pretend to give them our fealty and our service so that we can continue to have access to them, but not one of us has escaped suffering under their tyranny, from the brutality of their laws and the cruelty of the Magisters they send to execute them. We have decided that we are done being oppressed. We are gathering our forces and we will overthrow them soon.

I came here because I wanted to find you, because you are a warrior anyone would want fighting on their side and because you have respect and position in our world that will lend validity to this revolution. But I didn't think that your penchant for self-preservation above all else would allow you to take up our cause. I almost passed on this assignment until I saw that there was a warrant, not just for your true death, but for the capture of your bonded.

Eric Northman, bonded to a Human. At first I chalked it up to her Fairy blood. You'll forgive me if, after our brief association, I found it hard to believe that you could ever care for anyone. But the thought wouldn't leave me alone. What if she did mean something to you? What if you did love her? What would you be willing to do to keep her? It's why I allowed you to go after Russell, to see if my skepticism was correct or if you really had fallen. And now I know.

So, as I see it, you have two options. Fight me and my men and, if I kill you, I'll take her back to the Authority and she'll spend the rest of her little Fairy life locked in a cage being poked and prodded and bitten until they can find some way to make her useful to them. Or, if you win and kill me you can spend the rest of her life fighting every assassin and kidnapper they send after her until you finally, inevitably, lose and someone else takes her away. Or you can fight with us, end their oppression and win your freedom and hers. What will it be?"

There's a moment of complete silence as everyone stares at Eric, myself included. The only thought running through my head is a steady chant, asking myself what I've done. Our choices are no choices at all. Either we fight her now and hope we win, only to fight others night after night until someone finally gets the better of us, or Eric commits treason and there will be no getting out of his death sentence or the horrible way they'll kill him. It might have all been a lie, Ilina's promise to let us live if we killed Russell, but at this moment I can't help feeling like, if only I'd stayed out of it, Ilina wouldn't have this leverage over us. Whether she was honest or not, I played right into her hand.

Eric's emotions are in utter upheaval. There is no way in which this situation turns out well for him and yet I also know, as he turns away from Ilina to look at me long and hard, that he's already made his decision, that there wasn't ever one to begin with really. Just as he's about to voice it though, the silence is shattered by Bill, whose crazed sounding words carry over the empty field with frightening intensity.

"Eric, don't," Bill shouts. "It's a trap! She's just trying to get you to commit treason! To get us all to agree to treason…." Whatever else Bill might have said is cut short and, despite the very unhappy way things have worked out between us, I can't help the scream of terrified shock that escapes my mouth as one of Ilina's men comes up behind him, stake in hand, and drives it through Bill's back and into his heart in one swift, savage movement.

I watch in utter disbelief as Bill's blood shoots out like a geyser from his chest and then he falls to bits on the ground, his remains, ironically, not that far from Russell's. As the truth of what just happened sinks in for all of us, every set of eyes turns from Bill's assassin to Ilina. Who just shrugs her shoulders.

"Compton was never part of the equation. He was young and weak and a miserable excuse for a King. I never intended to offer him the chance to fight with us, but you still have it, Eric. What's your decision?" Her words are coldly said, without a spark of feeling for what she no doubt ordered done even before they sat in a car together coming here, before fighting side by side against Russell.

I had worried last night that, despite my faith in Eric's love, Ilina would try to take him away from me, that she might try to tempt him from my side; if not because of her long ago infatuation then out of spite, to ruin what we have that she never did with him. But now I realize that I was making Ilina's motivations too simple. She does not feel…anything. She doesn't love, she doesn't hate, she would not waste time on an emotion as worthless as spite or as pointless as regret. She simply does what needs doing to accomplish her goals and lets grief and remorse be felt by those she leaves in her wake. She's here for a fighter and she's assessed the situation, discovered his weakness and is now exploiting it for her own gain.

"We'll fight with you." Eric says. His voice is completely flat but inside I can feel guilt, anger and defeat eating at him.

"Good. Now I need one more thing from you." Ilina says, satisfaction painting her tone. Eric raises one eyebrow in question as Ilina produces a pair of pliers from her jacket pocket, even as the man who staked Bill begins to search through his remains for something. "I will return to the Authority with some of my men. I will need to bring 'proof' of your demise." Just as Ilina waves the pliers in front of Eric, I see with a sickening dread that Bill's murderer is fishing his fangs out of the goopy remains. The realization of what Ilina is asking for seems to hit Pam and me at once and I hear Pam let out a gut wrenching sob as she watches Eric.

The love of my life looks down at the plumbing tool in front of him and then at the Vampires that surround us. Seeing all eyes on him, he takes the pliers from Ilina's hand and, for a split second, I see surprise pass in front of her eyes. I don't know what she expected, but it's not what happens next.

Without a word or a sound, Eric clamps his own left fang and, with a sickening force, wrenches it from his mouth. I know that our bond is muted right now, because even the slight echo of the pain he feels is like molten lava running through my body and I see Pam pitch forward a little, her hand going to her mouth as she begins to shed silent tears, the blood dripping unstopped down her face.

For all the pain he must feel, Eric gives no visible sign that it was any worse than flossing his teeth, and I see the looks of the Vampires that came with Ilina change all of the sudden from amusement at his predicament or shock that he would attempt to do this himself, to utter and complete admiration and respect, and I know that most of them know they would not be able to do the same.

Eric opens the pliers over Ilina's hand and lets his fang drop into her hand and then, without pausing, he does the same to his other, ripping it out and bending over only long enough to spit out the blood that literally gushes from his mouth, before putting the other in her hand as well. Ilina nods at him, her face going soft for a single second before she closes herself off again and looks briskly at her men. Ten of them come forward to join her, the other eight remaining where they stand.

"I must return now and report to the members of the Authority that you and Compton have been neutralized. I will not mention Russell or anything that happened here and I will tell them that, when you discovered I was after you, you murdered your Bonded rather than give up possession of her. I will leave you with my second, Sigmund." Ilina gestures to a tall, blond Vampire that looks almost like the poor man's version of Eric, "He will take you to your home. Pack what you need, stay inside and do not show yourself and he will take you to a secure location the night after tomorrow." Ilina says nothing else, nor gives any of us the opportunity to answer her before she and the Vampires she's taking with her get into their SUVs and drive away.

"Come." The Vampire named Sigmund orders us through a heavy German accent. "The night is half over already and we have a long drive." Eric nods his head, turning and picking me up so that I don't have to walk on my injured ankle. We pile into one big SUV, Sigmund driving and the other Vampires Ilina left following in an identical one behind us, as we begin to make the trip back.

After making sure that I'm settled in the back seat, Eric sits shotgun and Pam takes the seat next to me. The ride is utterly silent, only the sounds of my breathing and of tiny sniffles escaping Pam every now and then punctuating the deafening quiet.

I'm so tired and so spent from all the terror and fright of this night that I wish, more than anything, that I could just let the darkness and the motion of the car lull me to sleep, but it won't come. All I can concentrate on, all I can think of, is the stone-like figure of the man I love, less than a foot in front of me, staring straight ahead at the empty road, his emotions, seeming numbed into non-existence, and refusing to look at me though he must know that my eyes are drilling holes in the back of his head, though he must feel my desperation for one gentle smile of reassurance.

Despite my chaotic emotions and my desperate desire to get to the safety and familiarity of home, Sigmund's Vampire reflexes and BMW's state of the art engineering get us back to our neck of the woods in what feels like record time, just over an hour, but to my astonishment we don't keep driving the highway on to Bon Temps, instead taking the exit for Shreveport.

Once we're off the highway, Eric begins to direct Sigmund in low tones, as though not wanting to speak to loudly, though I don't understand why. It takes another twenty minutes, but then we're pulling up to what I assume is Eric's house. The truth is that despite owning it (or I guess soon to be owning it), I've never been here before. It brings home with startling acuity how short a time Eric and I have actually been together, only two and a half weeks: and in that time, knowing how much I love my home and, I think, loving it too, Eric has pretty much moved in with me.

I hate that my first night in Eric's house is under guard and surrounded by so much tragedy and uncertainty and pain. It should have happened one night after I surprised him at the bar. It should have happened because I had made him so happy, had given him such a wonderful shock, that he just couldn't wait the hour it would take us to drive back to the farmhouse. We should have been coming here alone to make love on every surface and share stories about Eric's past as he showed me, the two of us still naked, all the beautiful, wonderful things he'd collected over a millennium on this earth.

Instead of being carried in the arms of my eager lover to commit sin after delicious sin, I'm lifted by my silent, weary, angry and conflicted Viking and carried wordlessly into the house with Sigmund and Pam following. Eric and Sigmund decide that he and two of his men will stay here in the house, since Eric can accommodate several Vampires at this home, and the rest will return to Bon Temps to use the late King's estate. They will return the night after tomorrow, just after sunset, to retrieve us and take us wherever it is that we're going.

Eric and Sigmund say a few more things to each other that I can barely hear, despite still being in Eric's arms, and then Eric takes me upstairs to a large bedroom.

Laying me down gently, Eric flicks on the beside lamp and sits next to me. I try to say something to him, I want to say anything to him to make him talk to me, look at me, tell me what he's thinking and explain to me what he's feeling, but I don't know what I could possibly say right now. Instead, I just watch as Eric produces a dagger from inside his jeans pocket and quickly and efficiently slices his wrist open. Holding the bleeding appendage out to me, he gestures towards my mouth.

"You need to heal. I don't want you to be in pain." He says quietly, those few words sounding more defeated and miserable than any I have ever heard from him. I look at him, long and hard, trying to send my love to him, but I get nothing in return, only another jerk of his wrist, indicating without more words that I should drink before the wound closes.

Wrapping Eric's arm in my hands, I put his wrist to my mouth and drink him in, letting his life force slide down my throat and enter my body, desperate to have his blood make us both more one with each swallow than I ever have been before, even as I feel the pain from my ankle begin to recede.

When the wound closes I let Eric's wrist drop and look down to see that, other than the streaks of crusted, dried blood that are stuck to my skin, my ankle is completely healed, the bite and the lacerations around it gone.

Though I couldn't have been looking at my healed wound for more than a moment, I'm taken completely by surprise when I feel the bed shift and realize that, far from joining me, Eric has gotten up and moved to the doorway.

"You should get some rest. It's been a long night." Eric says, his voice a little louder now and, for the first time I realize, marked by a pronounced lisp. It wrenches my heart to realize that the change in the sound of his voice is from the newness of his speaking around the empty holes where his fangs should be and again the guilt comes rushing down on me, the feeling that I am responsible for this, in any small way.

It's so overwhelming that I almost don't understand until Eric is nearly out of the door that his words and his actions mean he's leaving me here, alone in this room: that he intends to sleep elsewhere, without me. Suddenly the panic wells up in me and the pain in my heart overcomes every other thought and I call out his name. The hurt in my voice must register with him as much as the hurt that travels across our bond, but he only looks at me forlornly and repeats his last statement.

"Rest." He says, and then looks at me with eyes so filled with dark unhappiness that I can barely stand to hold his gaze. "I…we'll talk tomorrow." With that, Eric closes the door firmly, leaving me alone in his home, exhausted, still injured mentally if not physically and nearly crushed by the weight of my panic about what is going to happen to us, my guilt at getting us into this mess, and my stinging pain at his rejection, until it all combines into one and births a new terrifying fear. A fear that I had never thought I would ever have to entertain: that I never even considered a possibility.

Throwing my head back on the pillow and letting my tears fall, heedless of how they wet and stain the expensive cotton beneath my head, I begin to agonize over the possibility that I could lose Eric, that what happened tonight has made an irrevocable taint that can never be forgotten or forgiven.

The man I love risked his life tonight to save me from a three thousand year old monster because I thought I knew better than him who to let into my house, and then was forced into agreeing to commit treason and possibly get himself killed overthrowing the Vampire government that rules his world and, to add injury and humiliation to the insult, was forced to rip out his own fangs to begin weaving the web of lies that will probably get us all killed. And for what?

Pam may not have meant them, but her words ring startlingly clear in my head right now: for a hick waitress from bum fuck's asshole Louisiana with a stupid name and an apparently common sense numbing vagina.

Those words cause the damn to break and I don't even care that I'm sharing a house with five Vampires who can probably hear my heart beating from where they are in the house. I just cry and cry, letting my nose run and my eyes squeeze shut so tightly that my head pounds, and I let myself sink into the pain and the fear. I let the truth wash over me that, even if we live through this, Eric may never be able to forgive me, may turn away from me, may realize that I'm not worth all of this as I call his name over and over but never let sound come out of my mouth, too proud, even in my utter misery, to let him hear me beg for him.

It goes on like that for a while, until my tears are cried out, and my heart is numb and then, stubborn to the last, I just start to get mad. Yes, I made a mistake, several mistakes! But I never thought any of this would happen. How could I? We're supposed to be partners, this relationship is supposed to be for life. How dare he leave me to suffer like this! How dare he go off to suffer by himself! Suddenly I'm filled with rage, but it only lives long enough for me to yank Eric's very expensive lamp from the wall socket and hurl it across the room. The sound of the glass shattering and the metal creaking seems to satisfy my rage and then I'm just consumed with emptiness once more.

Sinking into the sheets, trying to ignore the icky, wet feel of the pillow beneath my head, I start to drift off into a hazy, dreamless half sleep. I float like that, somewhere between consciousness and unconsciousness, for what seems like a long time, when I'm suddenly roused by the feeling of strong arms lifting me up.

My brain, exhausted from the rollercoaster of this horrible, horrible night only dimly registers the familiar feel of the cool arms supporting me and the cool chest I'm pressed against, and the inviting, delicious scent of the man they belong to, that I would know even in the darkest, most all-encompassing dream. Looking up I dimly see Eric, naked, showered and clean, carrying me down a small pair of stairs and through a door to another room.

Laying me down on my side in the even larger bed, he leaves for a moment and I hear the sound of beeping and something locking solidly and then he returns, climbing in behind me, pulling the covers over both of us and wrapping his arms around me, pulling me back into the spoon of his body. My own reacts instantly to all of this, relaxing truly for the first time all night and conforming to his, all by itself. The feel of being safely and securely pressed against him, in his bed, is like being rescued after thinking you'd been left to drown in a storm, and I feel real sleep pulling at me for the first time. It overwhelms me, but not before I find the energy and the courage to say one word.

"Why?" I whisper into the darkened room. Eric's first response is to tighten his arms around me and bury his nose into the curtain of my hair, but just as I'm falling off I hear him answer me.

"I cannot find my rest without you." He tells me, in an anguished tone.


	10. Chapter 10

_**A/N:**__ Is anyone up for a little make-up lemon? Here's the next chapter and Sookie and Eric will clear the air. I'm sorry if I was misleading in my last author's note. There won't be any chapters that are EPOV, the whole story is told by Sookie, I just meant that they would talk this chapter and he'd get the chance to explain himself. Sorry! ::ducks to avoid any rotten fruit:: _

_So as always thank you everyone who's been reading, alerting, favoriting and especially reviewing! Y'all are wonderful! And thank you to my wonderful beta, Sheknitsnicely, this was all done on her vaca, cause she's the best!_

_**Disclaimer:**__ I don't own them. Currently Alan Ball does, however things are not looking good after other characters Mr. Ball owns such as Pam Beaufort, Jesus Luz, Baby Mikey, and Godric came forward and volunteered to testify for the prosecution in this case, freely offering their own terrible stories of abuse and mistreatment at Mr. Ball's hands!_

When I come awake next, it's very late in the day, just after four in the afternoon. I'm not surprised by this since, I've been kidnapped, bitten by one thing or another and forced to fight for my life, and the lives of those I love, often enough at this point to know that it's more exhausting to the body than a typical day at the office.

What I am surprised by, given how last night ended, is the fact that Eric, awake early now that winter is pretty much official, is still here with me. He sits on the other end of his enormous bed, his back to me, his elbows resting on his knees, his head in his hands and, perhaps most gut wrenching of all, a bottle of half-finished True Blood sitting forgotten on the night table.

I don't know what to say to him. His mood right now is parts pensive and accepting, but there's a low simmering anger just beneath it and I have no idea if that anger is for me. I have no idea if he blames me, if he hates me. I'm hopeful that, given that he brought me down here last night and chose to stay, even though he knew I'd probably wake up at some point, he doesn't wish never to see me again. But I'm just…adrift.

Knowing that nothing will come of simply sitting here and fretting myself into a heart condition, I sit up, pulling the sheet securely around me, even though I'm still wearing my shirt and underwear from last night, and call Eric's name softly. Eric doesn't bother to turn around, but I do get an acknowledgement.

"Are you feeling better?" He asks me. His tone isn't as quiet as last night, but I can hear that he's annunciating every word much more slowly and carefully than usual, trying to make them come out normal sounding, despite what must be the uncomfortable and unwanted newness of being without his fangs.

"I am." I answer quietly, not knowing what I should do and, not having planned anything out, I just start to ramble from there. "Eric…I'm so sorry about…everything! I didn't…." Whatever I would have said, Eric cuts off by lifting his hand in a 'stop' gesture. It shuts me up immediately, but does nothing to make me feel any better, especially since he hasn't turned, even for a second, to look at me.

"Sookie, there isn't anything for you to apologize for." He says with a great deal of conviction. I'm about to interrupt but he plows right on. "It's not your fault that, in trying to keep you away from Ilina, I managed to expose you to Russell. I had hoped that he wanted me, but I should have known better. In wanting to keep you away from her, I gave him the in he was looking for.

Nor is it your fault that you entered the battle last night. We are bonded, not just by our blood but by the love we have for each other. Such emotions make decisions based on nothing but logic impossible. I could not, and would not, have been able to simply sit by and watch, any more than you did, if our situations had been reversed. You did what you felt was necessary. You are no more a wilting, helpless flower than I am a coward. I cannot blame you for doing what is in your nature.

I am not happy that you let the Were bitch into the house last night, but there is no guaranteeing that things would have gone much differently if you hadn't. And if there is blame there, then you share it equally with Pam and Alcide. Pam and I will have a talk about that when this is finished, and the dog had better hope we never cross paths again. I let Bill give him blood last night because we needed every willing fighter, but if I should ever see him again I will rip him limb from limb for exposing you to such danger so idiotically! He owes me a debt in blood and I will have it. As for the rest, it's not your fault we can't seem to catch a break." Eric's words feel as though they lift a weight off of my shoulders that's been pressing down harder and harder since last night, but it's not completely gone from me yet.

"If you don't blame me, if you're not angry with me, then why did you leave me alone and why won't you look at me now?" I ask him, my voice breaking a little at the end, even as my body feels compelled to edge closer to him, wanting to give him comfort as much as I need to receive it. Eric's first response is a shake of his head as his shoulders seem to hunch over even more.

"I'm sorry I left you last night. I was not angry at you then either…I simply…I needed to think. I _am _angry with myself for allowing Ilina to maneuver me the way she has and I am… overwhelmed by the enormity of the thing she's gotten us to agree to, but the truth is our lives were forfeit from the moment the Authority signed those warrants. Perhaps, in reality, this is a blessing. I would rather die fighting than submit on my knees and I would_ never_ have submitted knowing they would take you. I was not angry with you, Sookie," Eric says again, "but I felt I was near being overcome, I needed to be alone to regain some calm and to think." I nod my head in understanding, even though Eric still isn't looking at me.

We handle things very differently he and I. The Stackhouses are a loud, in your face bunch that prefer to scream and yell or be screamed and yelled at when we have problems, just so long as people are talking. Eric is a loner, through and through: someone who finds solutions to his problems by contemplating them deeply, in silent privacy.

I remember finding him that way just before we squared off against Russell the first time, before our first kiss, alone in his office meditating over his desk lamp. It seems that we aren't going to be given a chance to learn each other in peace and solitude like most couples. There isn't going to be any honeymoon period for us; instead, we'll have to learn when to hold on to each other tight and when to let out the rope a little as we go skipping from frying pan to fire and back again.

"Then why won't you look at me?" I finally ask him, when, even after absolving me of my fears and sending me precious waves of comfort, he still won't let me see any of him but his back. Eric shakes his head and is silent for a long moment. When he does speak though, his voice is so low that if I hadn't had some of his blood just last night I probably wouldn't have been able to hear it.

"I don't want you to see me this way." He whispers, his voice no less filled with anguish for its lack of volume. I know he can't see my eyebrow rise into my hair, but he must sense the question despite that, because he begins to sputter out an explanation. "I…I don't know how to make you understand except to say…. I feel…. I am incomplete!" He finally manages to tell me, though it still doesn't quite make sense to me. "A Vampire without his fangs is like a lion without his claws and losing them is a punishment reserved for the most disgusting crimes. Even then, it's usually accompanied by starvation and isolation. But I must be seen with these…_holes_ by everyone! Fucking bitch blackmailed me into giving her my help and then she…she HUMILIATED me in front of all of them, in front of Pam, in front of YOU!

I cannot bear for you to look at me like this! I feel half a man. I cannot fight like a Vampire. I cannot bite or feed. I cannot even please you properly!" He spits out the last as I'm overcome by a wave of the deep shame he feels and I understand.

It would be no different than losing a limb or one of my senses, if I was blinded or couldn't hear, if I lost my legs. Something integral about who he perceives himself to be has been ripped away from him and he feels lost. For Eric, who is prouder and vainer than most, the fact that his injury is so visible has to make it even worse. It's the mind fuck cherry on top of Ilina's blackmail cake. Understanding and agreeing, though, are two different things, especially about the last part.

Eric might be missing something that he feels is a part of him, but that doesn't mean that he's less of a man or a Vampire or that he's useless. I've never seen a man fight, both with a sword and with his brain, the way Eric does and, given that he spent a week under amnesia, when I allowed him to touch but not bite, I know that no matter how good his fangs feel in my skin, he doesn't need them to obliterate the thought of every other man on the planet from my head and I intend to remind him of that right now!

Throwing off the covers, I walk around the bed and come to stand between his knees. Eric moves as if to turn away from me, but when I put my hand on his shoulder he stops. I can feel in our bond his near pleading for me to just leave him be right now, but I also know that he would never use his physical strength as a weapon against me. It's something I take advantage of now as I kneel in front of him and gently reach up, pulling his hands away from his face. There are tears streaking his cheeks and a look of pure mortification as he sees that I see them.

It's not the first time that I've seen Eric cry, but it is the first time that I've seen him cry in self -pity and I think that, more than anything, is what makes him feel ashamed right now. Not just that this thing has been done to him, but that he can't hide how it's affecting him: that he's weak and vulnerable in an entirely new and unpleasant way in front of me.

I wonder how many people have ever given Eric comfort? I wonder if Godric is the only other one? I wonder a lot of things, but I let them pass out of my head just as quickly as they come. The important thing right now is for me to show my beautiful, vain, strong, stubborn, fierce and unwillingly vulnerable Vampire that, between us, there need never be any walls, real or imagined.

I will understand and I will try to accept the fact that, when Eric is confused or adrift, he will need time to himself. I will give him that space when he needs it, but I will never let him turn away from me out of shame or a perception that I will think differently of him for feeling or even being weak again. We belong to each other, in good and bad.

"Eric, look at me." I command him softly, letting him feel through our bond that I will not let him out of this. He's reticent at first, but eventually his eyes lift to meet mine. "I love you. What happened last night does not change that. If anything, I love you more. I love you for understanding why I did the things I did. I love you for choosing to fight for us, no matter how risky the battle, and I love you more than I can ever express for the sacrifice you made last night for us…for me!" I say the last as I reach out tentatively and brush my thumb, softly, over his upper lip. "Nothing you ever do will make me stop loving you. But what you did last night…I have never loved you or wanted you more than I do right now!

The look in Eric's eyes is confused and unsure, but little by little, as my words sink in, I feel the change within him. We almost died last night (again) and we fought and won a victory, no matter how much it was tainted by what happened afterward. These things are heady aphrodisiacs for my Vampire, for any Vampire, and as he feels the truth of my love for him, my acceptance of him as he is, I feel my Eric start to come back to me. I feel the man I love realize that the woman he loves is before him: needing him, loving him and desiring him. And the man I love has never been one to leave his woman wanting.

Not waiting for him to make the first move, I stand up fully, still between his legs, and slowly reach for the hem of my shirt, lifting it over my torso inch by inch and then whipping it off my head in a smooth motion. Eric's eyes, that wanted to avoid me so avidly a few minutes ago, are glued to me now as I reach back behind me, throwing the stained shirt in a corner and letting my fingers wrap around the clasp to my bra. When it too joins my shirt, I stand there for a single second, letting Eric's eyes roam over me and sending him wave after wave of lustful adoration before hooking my thumbs into my underwear and pulling it down, letting the little piece of lace fall on its own when it reaches my knees. Bending to his ear, letting my bare breasts brush his cheek, I whisper softly, my breath a tiny, hot puff against the side of his face.

"Please, Eric, don't turn me away!" The words are barely out of my mouth when I feel Eric's hands come up and capture my waist. Lifting me effortlessly, he lays me back on the bed. It's so big that, even width wise, it's still bigger than I am. Turning and kneeling between my own spread legs this time, Eric takes a moment to just look at me, his eyes going molten hot and the feelings he's sending me through our bond stripped down to the most elemental: love, desire and need.

"What have I ever done to deserve you?" He asks, and his question catches me off guard for one moment, maybe making me realize how much what happened last night could have damaged him, might still damage him, if I don't show him that nothing has changed in my eyes, that _he_ hasn't changed in my eyes. The Eric I know, both of them if you want to get technical about it, is many things, both good and bad, but confident in his God given right to have me for his own is one of his most prominent and binding characteristics. When he's himself, when he was cursed, he never doubted for even a moment that I should belong to him. I look up at him now and pin him with the most sincere, heated and honest gaze I have ever given anyone, and I tell him the truth.

"You're you. That alone is more than enough!" Eric smiles, a closed lipped smile, but a smile nonetheless and then he does something I would never have expected. He picks up my foot, the one that was injured last night, and begins to pet it, inspecting the healed bite mark for a moment before lifting it to his mouth and letting his tongue dart out to slowly clean away the dried blood that's still there.

It feels amazing, his cool tongue on my hot skin, and it makes me shiver deliciously while letting out a wanton moan. I want him… I want him so badly. The terror of last night, the pain, the rejection I though he was giving me, it all coalesces into one giant knot at the pit of my stomach that only the physical proof of his love can undo and, as he licks and sucks his way up my leg, his human teeth nipping me almost playfully, I feel myself growing wet, my body starting to writhe on the bed, wanting his tongue and teeth and lips on another, more sensitive, part of my body.

When Eric's face finally meets my slit, I'm dripping for him, staining his lovely statin bed sheets with my longing and begging nearly incoherently. He looks at me once, his eyes going soft with his love, and then he parts me with his fingers and lets his tongue dart out to taste me.

When his tongue meets my overheated sex, my hips buck up off the bed, desperate to get as much contact as possible. Taking the opportunity, Eric threads his arms through my bent knees and cups both globes of my bottom, taking them firmly in hand, squeezing and kneading them, using them to lift my pussy closer to his face as he alternates between sucking on my already over sensitive clit and driving his tongue deeply in and out of my entrance.

Without my knowledge, my hips begin to thrust continuously, pushing myself against Eric's willing face again and again as he drives me closer and closer to climax. The peak is just nearing when I feel him bring one hand closer and closer to the center of my bottom, letting his fingers splay me wide and starting to play between my cheeks, gently massaging my other entrance. For all the amazing sex we've had, Eric has never ventured there before and I know that he's doing it now because he wants to prove to me, to himself, that he can pleasure me like no one else even without biting me.

Knowing that he only wants me to feel good and not quite believing how amazing it actually does feel, I let myself fall into the sensation without fear and the overwhelming nature of the of it, coupled with the knowledge of how very forbidden what he's doing to cause it is, takes me that last little step off the precipice.

I come screaming Eric's name and clinging to any part of him that my blind, flailing hands can find as he crawls up my body and envelopes me in his arms, holding me close as I come down. When I can see and think again, I find him smiling down on me. I smile back for just a moment before grabbing the back of his head and taking his mouth in a ferocious kiss. At first Eric seems more than happy to let his tongue plunge into my mouth and explore every inch of the territory he knows so well, but when I try to do the same to him he hesitates.

I open my eyes to find his on me, but don't break our kiss as I all but force his mouth open and begin to caress every part of it. When my tongue swipes over the gaping holes where his fangs used to be I feel him shudder.

"Does it hurt?" I ask him softly, still not pulling away. Eric shakes his head, and I feel his hands come up and cup my face.

"No." Is all he says before our tongues resume dueling. Just the pressure of his lips on mine and the taste of myself on them is enough to bring me back to a fever pitch and I let my hand run down Eric's chest and the defined muscles of his stomach until it meets his cock, long, thick and hard. I wrap my fingers around his base and begin to stroke, feeling him thrust into my hand.

I love the feel of him almost as much as I love the taste, but before I can let that thought take its natural course, I feel Eric lean away from me. Shocked, I want to protest until I see him reach into one of the nightstand drawers and return with a little dagger.

Climbing back between my legs, Eric takes it out of his tiny holder and slices the side of his neck. I watch as his thick, red blood starts to ooze out of the wound and run sluggishly down his throat.

Eric makes to put the dagger aside, but before he does I put my hand over his and bring it to my own neck. Eric's eyes go wide as I use both of our hands to slice a long, shallow cut just where my neck meets my shoulder, and I can feel his shock as my blood starts to run out, thinner and faster than his. The cut hurts but, now more than ever, I feel the need to renew our bond, to make it strong and to show him that nothing will ever make me turn away from him, that no pain, small or great, is too much to endure if it means that we're together.

Eric gives me one last, adoring gaze and then we both let our lips fall to each other's skin, our mouths latching, our arms encircling one another tightly and Eric's body pushing into mine, so that we're one in every possible way.

As we drink from each other, the bond opens up wide and I feel us merging together once again, sharing our bodies and our pleasures. I feel that place in him that's wounded and uncertain and I fill it with my love, with my strength, with my fierce trust in him and in return I feel a tidal wave of devotion and love washing over me

As we share the most vulnerable parts of ourselves, Eric thrusts into me over and over again, each movement long, slow and hard, until finally I release his neck to breathe and find myself crying out once more, begging him to go faster, to reach deeper, to take me harder.

As his pace picks up, I feel him licking my neck, sealing the wound and, when it's closed, he takes one hand and cups my cheek, bringing our faces together, just centimeters apart, so that we can watch one another as we fall over the edge.

"Love you, love you so much!" I cry out as my orgasm hits me hard and I feel Eric lower his head so that our foreheads touch and he nods as he's taken with me.

"Never leave me, Sookie! I can't think without you. I can't live without you!" Eric pumps erratically a few more times and I encircle him as tightly as possible with my arms and legs as the aftershocks rock through our bodies and then he rolls us so that we're both on our sides.

The moment sends a thrill of déjà vu through me as I take in the white satin sheets and the way we're curved around each other, but suddenly only touching where he grasps my hand in his, kissing it again and again as he looks at me with languid, loving eyes. His words though are different.

"I'm sorry I did not comfort you last night. It was selfish of me to think only of myself." He says, gently. I give him a half smile and nod my head, thankful for him saying it even if I need to tell him it's unnecessary.

"You don't need to apologize either, Eric. You don't always need to take care of me. But next time I'd love it if you'd let me take care of you, or at the very least don't just go running off, okay? Tell me you need space and it's yours." Eric nods his head, pulling himself closer and throwing an arm over me, so that his hand can stroke my back.

"I promise, lover." He says, laying gentle kisses on my face. After just a few though, he pulls back and pins me with a serious expression.

"Compton." He says Bill's name like it's a curse, but he looks at me carefully as he does. "Are you alright? Are you…sad?" I look at Eric and I realize that I haven't even thought of what happened to Bill last night since it happened. I really, really look deep down inside of myself before answering Eric and, to be honest, I'm not sure I like what I find, but the truth is the truth.

"No, I'm not. I feel like I should be sad, but the truth is Bill killed any remaining good feelings I had for him when he helped Antonia use me to light you on fire. I wasn't wishing him dead or anything, but well…if it was between Ilina staking you or staking Bill…." I let the sentence trail off, still not ready to admit out loud that I'd throw pretty much anyone under a bus if it meant saving Eric. He just nods in understanding, probably knowing everything even without my words, since he can feel what I feel. "Eric, why do you think Ilina spared you and not Bill?" It's something that's been gnawing at the back of my brain since last night.

It's true that Eric is a much more formidable warrior than Bill could have ever hoped to have been, but with almost no Vampires left in Louisiana it's not like Eric commands an army that he can pledge to Ilina's cause or anything like that. It just seems like an awful lot of trouble to go through for one fighter. Eric grimaces. It appears the same question has been on his mind in the last hours too.

"She said that my reputation would bring validity to this fight, but I think it's more than that. I think she wants my connections more than she wants my reputation." He answers. I lift up onto my elbow and give Eric a questioning look.

"Your connections," I ask, "to whom?" Eric lets out a deep, unnecessary sigh and looks me straight in the eye.

"To two people who wouldn't talk to her otherwise, but that I might be able to persuade to join this fight."


	11. Chapter 11

_**A/N:**__ Hi! So I'll be totally honest with you. I'm going to be introducing two more original characters now, which basically turned this chapter into "Eric's story hour" (again). I sincerely apologize for this. It's not that there's anything particularly wrong with doing it, it's just that I firmly believe that fanfic is about plagiarizing OTHER people's characters. And I think it's a fair assumption that y'all are here hoping that I can rub my two brain cells together long enough to find some interesting obstacles to throw at Eric and Sookie in between bouts of 'sexy' time, not to watch me create armies of my own original play things. _

_That being said, I looked around to see what my options were for getting Eric and Sookie out of this mess and I came up with squat! If anyone knows why there are no Vampires on a show that's based on a novel series about Southern Vampires please tell me! _

_So there you have it, no Vampires on a show about Vampires means I had to come up with some more Vampires. I'm not in the habit of getting overly attached to my OCs, though, so you don't have to worry about chapters wasted in pointless and boring flashbacks to their long and uninteresting lives, but I did need to at least give them a back story, so again, welcome to Eric's story hour part II, pull up a chair and let the Viking tell you a tale. I promise… it's the last time! _

_**Disclaimer:**__ I don't own them. However trying to stack the jury in your favor isn't going to help you keep them either Mr. Ball! You can't bribe everyone in Southern California!_

"Ulrich and Idonea." Eric answers my question and I see his mouth, involuntarily, turn up in a smile that lights his face. It's not his normal smile, yet, but after all the pain and suffering we've been through in the last forty-eight hours, Eric smiling at all is something that I welcome with open arms and I find myself anxious to find out who these people are.

"Who are they?" Eric gets up from the bed and holds out his hand to me, helping me up as well. He leads me into his bathroom, sitting me down on the counter as he begins to draw a bath for the both of us.

Eric's bathroom is lovely, but my first thought on seeing it is that it's so…normal. I can't say that I've been in the bathrooms of many Vampires before, only Bill's really, but the way Bill always had an amazing bathroom, even when the rest of his house looked like it might be blown over by the gentlest summer breeze, led me to believe that it must be a Vampire thing. Like maybe they all loved big, glorious bathrooms because so many of them lived before indoor plumbing, or maybe they wanted multiple places to put warm water all over themselves because they were so cold. Eric's bathroom is just a really nice bathroom. Nothing too fancy, nothing too opulent: I don't feel as though I've entered the pampering room of a pharaoh or been taken to the bath of a Persian Shah.

It's just nice and cozy and homey, big enough for a man as large as my Vampire, but normal in every other respect and surprising considering it's Eric's. As Eric tests the temperature of the water, I look around and I have to say that I'm in love. The room is done in beautiful sky blue tile, all very expensive without being flashy, and the fixtures are shiny brass. There's a huge soft carpet in front of the tub that looks just big enough to seat one giant Viking and one medium sized barmaid and the shower is shaded in frosted, tinted navy glass and has a lovely rainfall shower head. Eric's sink and counter seem filled with all of his toiletries and his towels are fluffy, soft and sunshine yellow.

I have to say that I was expecting black marble and bronze and all manner of things that would make James Bond himself hard, but I like this a great deal better. It feels like a bathroom that was meant to be relaxed in.

Eric gets into the water and then helps me do the same, sitting me sideways on his lap so that I can rest my cheek on his chest and he can hold pretty much all of me as we take a much needed moment to relax and let the water wash away our stress. Eric's hands caress my body softly as he finally answers my question.

"The short answer is that Ulrich is Godric's maker and Idonea is his wife." I snuggle my cheek into Eric's chest and wrap my arms around his middle as Eric takes a long breath. "The long answer is that Ulrich is the King of Denmark and Holland and Idonea is the Queen of Sweden and Norway. They've been married for almost eight hundred years and they rule Scandinavia as one entity. They are powerful, old and they have no love for the Authority, though it hasn't come to a fight between them yet." There's a whole bunch of stuff going on in those few sentences but one thing more than any other strikes me.

"Godric's maker is alive?" I ask, without really thinking first. Eric looks down on me and his smile gets a little less bright as he thinks fully about his maker, but he just nods his head. I know I shouldn't ask anything further, but I can't help myself. "I don't understand, if Godric's maker is alive how could he…?" My common sense finally prevails and shuts me up, but not before I see the pain lance through Eric's eyes. I feel instantly remorseful for having brought it up and try to brush it aside for him, even as I send him comfort and love. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked." I say, softly. To my astonishment I feel Eric squeeze his arms around me tightly for one moment and drop a kiss into my hair.

"You don't have to apologize, love." He says to me, and I can feel him open our bond almost completely, letting me in with both is words and his actions. "We cannot talk about Ulrich without talking about Godric and, though I would not speak of him to just anyone, I don't mind sharing my memories of Godric with you." I look up at Eric and I'm totally overcome by his statement and the look of gentle care that's painting his face: so much so that my small response is almost breathless.

"I'd like that." Eric smiles again and then his hand comes up to cup my cheek, laying my head back on his chest as he begins to talk.

"It's not an entirely happy story, of course." He begins. "Ulrich made Godric when Ulrich was only about a hundred and fifty years old. His own maker had been his Human sibling and had met a violent end, leaving Ulrich, then still quite young, alone. Vampires tend to make children because they feel a lack of something in their own existences and that is why Ulrich chose to make a child then. He had lost his brother and he wanted another one.

I do not know exactly why Ulrich chose Godric personally, but Ulrich has often said that he never for a moment doubted it when he saw Godric. From the second their eyes met, Ulrich knew that Godric was meant to be his child. Godric told me once that he knew it too, but that it was for a different reason." Looking up at Eric, I feel my eyebrow raise as Eric feels something that is much like sympathy for his maker. He takes a long look in my eyes and then proceeds carefully.

"Vampires often defy the labels that Humans like to put on themselves. We live a very long time and that makes us open, tolerant and even inquisitive about very many things, especially when it comes to sex." I nod my head into Eric's chest and send him as much calm contentment as I can. I know that he's worried about my being too prudish to want to hear all this, but the truth is, that I find it all fascinating and, good southern girl though I am, I have no issues with what other people do in their bedrooms so long as everyone there wants to be there.

"But despite that, I would say that Godric very firmly preferred men and, as a new made Vampire, he understandably very firmly preferred Ulrich. Maker and child relationships can be sexual, but they don't have to be, and there in was the first of many of the wedges that seemed to always be between them. Godric loved Ulrich in every way and, though Ulrich loved Godric as his child, he did not return that particular affection. It was something that became too hard for Godric to bear after very long and, after about a decade, they parted ways and did so badly. They did not speak to each other for almost a hundred years that first time and, even though they were able to make peace eventually, it was always there between them, until Godric found and turned me. With my making, Godric seemed to transfer his affections from Ulrich to me and much of that hurt died away." Eric's story is sad and so strange all at once.

I admit to not fully understanding the sometimes incestuous feeling relationships between Vampires and their makers and their progeny, but I saw Eric and Godric on that roof top in Dallas and I think I've learned enough by now to know that it's simply not something that a Human can comprehend. There is so much instinct and emotion wrapped up in it that I will never be able to grasp it all. As for the nature of Godric and Eric's particular relationship…this doesn't surprise me, but it does answer a lot of questions that always seemed to float around in the background for me.

"So, after Godric turned you he was finally able to forgive his maker for not returning his feelings?" I ask. Eric nods.

"Yes and no. I loved Godric very deeply, but I was never in love with him, as I am with you and, though he never gave any indication that it bothered him, he must have realized it. But truth be told, I don't think Godric ever fully got over Ulrich. Circumstances arose, though, that made it possible for them to find some kind of amicable relationship." He tells me.

"What happened?" I ask him. I barely knew Godric, but he was the best Vampire I ever met. Knowing that he longed, for so long, for someone he could never have, was tied to them and yet still grieved for their absence, makes me feel so much sorrier for him and so much sadder about everything that happened.

"A war broke out." Eric tells me, and I somehow can't help snorting just a little bit in spite of it all. Of course, nothing brings a group of men together better than a good fight. "While Godric and Ulrich wandered their separate ways, Ulrich became the King of what is now Denmark and Holland. His closest neighbor was Idonea, who ruled what is modern day Norway and my homeland of Sweden. They had never had much to do with each other before and had never met personally, when one day Idonea decided that she wanted to rule all Scandinavia by herself and decided to declare war against Ulrich.

Ulrich was only too happy to fight for his land and they made a bloody battle of it for many, many years, during which time Ulrich called Godric and I to fight for him." I look up at Eric and again I can't help but interject

"Wait, I thought you said that Ulrich and Idonea were married. Is it just political then?" I ask. Eric gets a somewhat far off smile for a moment and then looks down on me with those eyes that are so cold in color but can get so hot when they want to.

"No, the marriage is very, very real." He says, his gaze roaming over me, making me think there's an unspoken 'like ours' in that sentence. "One night, decades into their little war, Ulrich and Idonea actually met face to face on the battlefield for the first time and they fought each other bitterly. They are about the same age and therefore the same strength and both are lethal with a sword. The fight went on for hours without a clear winner, to the point that many around them dropped their weapons to watch as they attempted to kill each other. Ulrich has said that he never saw anyone, man or woman, fight the way Idonea does and something seemed to happen between them. Suddenly, there in front of us all, they dropped their weapons. Neither had won and neither had lost.

Ulrich picked her up, put her on the back of his horse and rode away with her, leaving all of us there dumbfounded and speechless. Godric and Idonea's commander called a truce and we went to find them. When we did, they were in Ulrich's tent, naked.

The next night, peace was declared and the night after that it was celebrated by Ulrich and Idonea's marriage. They've been together ever since." Wow, I totally wasn't expecting the story to end like that.

By this point the water in the tub is getting cold and Eric and I get out quickly and dry off in his fluffy towels before heading back to the bed. Laying on his back, Eric brings me to lay with my head on his chest.

"Are y'all just completely messed up?" I ask him, only half joking. Eric just smiles and laughs a full on belly laugh, my favorite of all Eric's sounds.

"Well, Ulrich and Idonea are perhaps more… 'messed up' than most, but yes I suppose we're all a little crazy: it comes with living so long. We either go insane or we simply have very warped senses of what's normal. The truth is, at the time, even though we were fighting and killing each other in their names, almost no one who was there was shocked by our war ending in a voluntary wedding and almost no one was angry about it either, except that it meant there wasn't a legitimate excuse for violence any more.

In any case, the war ended and Ulrich and Godric, having both found someone to care for, were able to make peace once and for all, at least about that argument, and Godric was able to give Idonea his blessing."

"I don't' understand though," I ask again, "if Godric's maker was still alive, why did he not stop Godric from meeting the sun?" Eric frowns a little at this and I get the sense that he's not one hundred percent happy about the answer, but that it's completely truthful.

"Ulrich and Godric were very, very different Sookie and, despite the fact that Ulrich claims to have known from the beginning that Godric should be his child, they never really understood each other. Ulrich is twenty-one hundred years old and never once, through good or bad, has he ever considered ending his existence. He knew, without doubt, that there was something wrong with Godric, but he never expected him to do what he did. Ulrich believed that it was a phase, that given time Godric would snap out of it or that he would find someone or something worth continuing on for. His guilt at letting Godric take his own life is something that he will have to live with for the rest of his existence and something that may never leave him be. Matters were always difficult between them, even in the best of times, and now they will never have the chance to resolve them." For a tale with so many fantastical elements, it is at its heart a soberingly normal story.

Godric and his father were so different and could never see eye to eye. It didn't mean that they didn't love each other but it meant that, in the end, when Godric needed help, his father didn't know how to give it to him. How many grieving Human parents or grieving Human children look back and think, "I knew he was in trouble, but I never thought he'd actually do it." My heart breaks for all three of them: for Godric who chose to leave even when so many needed him and for Eric and Ulrich, who he left behind with such wounds on their hearts. Hugging Eric tightly, I kiss his lips gently.

"I'm so sorry, Eric. I know that I can never know what Godric's loss is to you really, but I know what it means to lose the most important person in your life. I wish I could bring him back for you." I say, though I know no words will ever be adequate. Eric kisses me back, long and hard, and I feel him try to put his pain back away in that little part of his heart where it always lives.

"I know you would love. If I could bring your grandmother back for you, I would as well." He says softly. It makes me smile, even as I choose not to think of my Gran but to concentrate on how far we've come from that hallway in the Fellowship of the Sun church, where he told me not to talk about things I could never understand.

"So, you think Ulrich and Idonea would help us? How long has it been since you've even seen them?" I ask, hoping to change the subject for us both.

"Yes, I think so. We are still very close, perhaps now more so than ever. I saw them three months ago." My head comes up off of Eric's chest.

"Three months ago?" I ask, not sure what to make of that. "You saw them while I was in Faery?" I ask again. I know that there must be some very good reason why but, unbidden, my mind conjures a picture of Eric sipping blood from a wine glass as he 'summers' with his 'grandparents'. The thought is a complete stray and I tamp down on it right away, knowing that it can't possibly be anything like that, but not before Eric can feel a twinge of the emotions that accompanied it.

"I wasn't on vacation if that's what you're thinking, Sookie. I was forced to go, by Pam." Stray thought or not, I never doubted Eric when he said that he was looking for me while I was gone, but the way he says it causes a little knot to form in my stomach. Whatever his reason for seeing them, it doesn't seem like it was good.

Eric sighs heavily and I can tell that he doesn't want to tell me why he was there but he knows me well enough to know that I'm not going to let it go until he does.

"Six months after you disappeared I was not… handling things as well as I could have been. I had bought your house from Jason by then and had hired the contractors who were repairing it, but other than that there was nothing to do. Your trail had gone cold, there was no where I hadn't already turned upside down and my concern for you, for who might have you and what they might be doing to you, was becoming increasingly…all consuming.

I had not had a solid lead in several months when I received word that there was a woman, a Jane Doe, found in Washington state, in the woods. She had been attacked by a Vampire and left for dead. She was found by some hikers who brought her to the local hospital and she was in critical condition, hanging on to her life by a thread.

Her general description met yours to a tee. A young female in her mid-twenties, long blond hair, brown eyes, medium height, small build, delicate features. By the time I hung up the phone I was convinced that it was you. It had to be. It was already near dawn, but I booked an Anubis flight and traveled via coffin to get there as fast as I could. I had to wait for the sun to set even when the flight was over though, and I didn't get to the hospital until just after dark the next day.

By the time I arrived, the girl had succumbed to her injuries and died. I had to glamour the coroner to let me into the morgue to see the body and, for a moment, when he pulled open her drawer and I saw long golden colored hair peeking out from underneath the sheet that covered her, I believed, with my whole being, that I'd lost you.

I'd lost you without ever even really having you. I'd lost you without telling you that I loved you. I'd lost you without ever feeling your body pressed against mine, without ever hearing you sigh my name. I could not even consider the fact that you might have one day loved me back. If I had thought that there was ever any chance you might have told me you loved me in return, I would have simply ended myself there, knowing that I had been robbed of the chance to hear it.

I was so engrossed in my grief that it took me a full minute to realize that the coroner had pulled back the sheet and that, pretty though the girl was, she wasn't you. I walked around for weeks after that in a daze, my gruesome imaginings beginning to get the better of me.

I saw you in my nightmares laying on that tray instead of her and I could not stop thinking about who might be hurting you. It got to the point where Pam became truly fearful that I would do something drastic and she called Ulrich who, still raw in his grief over Godric, demanded that I come home. You will meet them soon, no doubt, but Ulrich is not someone to say no to, and Idonea even less. The combination of the two of them and Pam all clamoring at me was more than I could take. I went home for two months to clear my head and I came back well enough to continue searching for you.

You will never have any idea what I felt when I saw you for the first time in a year that night you came back. If Compton had not been there, if he had not sent me away, I am not sure that I could have controlled myself much longer from taking you in my arms and showing you what you meant to me.

I have never lied to you Sookie. I never stopped searching for you, I never stopped believing that I would find you, I never gave up hope that you were alive and that you would come back to me, but after all the very bad things I have seen, it was hard not to fear what state you would return to me in." By the time Eric finishes telling me this little story, I'm in tears.

I'm in tears because I can't even imagine the depth of the anguish he felt when the mere echo of it is nearly devastating in its sorrow. I'm in tears that my stray thought would make Eric believe, even for a moment, that I doubted him and in tears because, at times like this, I don't feel like I'm deserving of this man. I'm many things, not all of them good, but I have learned one lesson in the past weeks that I will never forget and that is that Eric loves me. Just how much and for how long though is still sinking in.

"I never doubted you, Eric. It was a stray thought, nothing more." I tell him, laying my head back down on his chest and running my hands up and down his body. Eric's arms tighten around me and I feel that he knows I'm being truthful.

"I know, Lover. We've both been through a great deal in the last nights and we're both just…raw." I nod my head at his assessment.

"Everything is going to be okay." I tell him, my voice small but my heart knowing that it's true.


	12. Chapter 12

_**A/N:**__ Sorry this took so long. RL was a total bitch last week! _

_Not much else to say except to again thank everyone who's been reading, reviewing, alerting and favoriting! Y'all rock my world! And to thank my beta, Sheknitsnicely, who is the awesomest beta ever!_

_**Disclaimer:**__ I don't own them, but after it was conclusively proven that Mr. Ball and his attorneys were indeed attempting to "stack" the jury, the judge in this case called for a mistrial. It was decided that any future trial should he be held on more neutral ground. Therefore the abuse charges against Mr. Ball will now be heard in Forks, WA where it was felt that the misfortunes of hunky vampires and they're human lady loves would get a fairer hearing! (Thanks VALady for the awesome idea! You so totally rock!)_

After Eric finishes his story, we just lay there for a little bit holding each other, enjoying the silence and the solitude, shoring one another up with the other's presence. It feels wonderful and restorative after everything that's happened so, of course, it can't last. I've barely snuggled my face completely into the crook of his shoulder, intent on doing nothing for the next little while but breathing him in, when there's a loud knock at the door.

"Eric," a familiar female voice calls, dripping in sarcasm, "your session with the magical, feel good Fairy vagina needs to come to an end, for now. We've got revolts to wage and Vampires to stake." Whether or not Pam actually knows the code to get into Eric's room I have no idea, but if she does she's smart enough not to actually use it at this particular moment.

After a curt reply, Eric and I untangle from each other, rise from his bed and begin to dress. I'm about to ask Eric what exactly I should put on, since I didn't actually have time to pack a bag before we came here (having been kidnapped and nearly killed and all), when he emerges from his airplane hangar of a closet dressed in his usual outfit of a wife beater and tight, dark, drool inducing, designer jeans, holding a bundle of decidedly feminine looking clothes. I watch dumbfounded as he walks up to me, an unreadable expression on his face and holds them out for me to take.

"If these aren't to your liking there are more things in the closet." He says quietly, making me think that, if he could, he'd be blushing bashfully right now.

Taking the clothes from him, I look down and see that he's handed me a pretty, baby pink sundress, a little white cardigan to go over it and a set of beautiful, matching lacy underwear. My first thought is to ask whose they are but, before I can say anything that will either get me mad or offend him, I see that everything still has the tags on it. They're brand new, all in exactly my size and all in my style. Looking up at him, knowing that a blush is most definitely staining my own cheeks, I ask the obvious without being able to stop myself first.

"You bought clothes for me? When?" Eric looks down at his feet for a moment before raising his eyes to face mine, almost as though he's readying for an argument.

"I had Pam take care of everything you might need in the last week and had things sent to each of my houses." I can tell through our bond that Eric is waiting for me to say something, probably expecting me to start a fight. Looking down at the clothes, I see instantly that the tags might still be on them, but whoever unpacked this stuff was smart enough, or devious enough since it's Pam we're talking about here, to have ripped the actual prices off.

"Eric…" I'm not sure what I should say. My first reaction is to give the clothes back to him and tell him that I can't accept such things. The fact that the price markings are gone just proves that I could never ever afford them or probably even imagine how much they cost.

It's an ingrained response after years of being raised never to accept charity from people and I'm just about to do it when something stops me. Maybe it's the glimmer of hope I feel from him that I'll accept what he so very badly wants to give me, or maybe it's the little voice in the back of my head repeating those words from just a few nights ago, that this is what people who love each other do: they take care of each other.

Eric didn't have these things delivered to_ my_ house. He didn't try to ply me with them as gifts, or insinuate that my Wal-Mart chic was no longer good enough now that I'm with him. He had them brought here in case I would need them, which as luck or his infinite foresight has proven, I actually do. Swallowing down my first instincts (which time has proven again and again I probably shouldn't listen to anyway) I lay the clothes on the bed and wrap my arms around his middle, holding him tight.

"Thank you for taking care of me." I say softly, pulling away just enough to smile up at him. Eric bends down, planting a soft kiss on my lips.

"Thank you for letting me." He answers.

~*E*~

Ten minutes later, Eric leads me through the secure lock at his bedroom door, up the stairs and into his huge open living room where we find Pam and Sigmund sitting across from each other, Pam in a huge arm chair and Sigmund on the even more enormous couch, giving each other the stink eye as Sigmund's men stand guard at the front door.

I can literally feel the change in Eric as we walk into the center of the room. The vulnerable man that made love to me just an hour ago, the devoted, fierce lover who would have and did nearly give everything to find me and win me, is suddenly pushed into the background, masked by the persona of the cold, deadly thousand year old Vampire as he prepares to face our problems head on once again.

"Where are we going tomorrow?" Eric asks authoritatively, taking control of the situation before Sigmund has a chance to. Sigmund looks up from his disdaining of Pam to give us a frustrated glance. It's clear that he's unhappy to have been given the job of babysitting and transporting us and is in no mood to be helpful.

"Bettmeralp." He answers flatly. I guess I'm the only one who doesn't automatically know where that is, because all Eric does is nod.

"And what will we find when we get there?" Eric continues. Sigmund just lets out a put upon sigh.

"I'm not at liberty to give you any information, Northman." He answers shortly. I hear Eric growl and I notice the guards by the door start to stand up a little bit straighter.

"That may be, but you're still going to. I am far older than you and your guards." Eric says, his voice softly menacing. Sigmund lets out an exasperated puff of air.

"And if you kill me you'll still find yourself hunted by both the Authority and by Ilina. So don't make empty threats." Eric's arm comes out, taking hold of me and pulling me firmly behind him.

"On the contrary, thanks to Ilina the Authority thinks I've met my true death. You know me and Pam and you saw last night what my bonded is capable of. How long do you think you'll live if I decide I'd rather take my chances on my own than help you out with your little rebellion against the empire?" I can actually see the wheels in Sigmund's head turning and the exact moment that the little light bulb above his head goes off and he realizes that we could actually take him and his two guards pretty dang easy. Sure, we might be condemning ourselves to a life on the run after that, but they'd still definitely be goop stains on the floor first. Giving us both a dirty look, Sigmund makes the right choice.

"That is the location of our compound. Those of our allies that have joined the fight are waiting for us there." Eric gives a put upon sigh of his own. It's probably not because Sigmund is either too dense or too square to get his previous pop culture reference, but I'm thinking that's a pretty good indication we're not dealing with the great thinker of this little revolt.

"Who are your allies?" He asks slowly, as if trying to help a simple child get the right answer, which I guess is exactly what he's doing.

"There are several Sheriff's from both America and Europe and their loyal Vampires as well as the King of New York and the Queen of France." Sigmund answers back proud of himself. Eric just stares at him blandly: apparently that don't impress him much.

"I may be able to bring two more monarchs to your banner if you allow us to make a stop on the way to Switzerland." Eric says flatly. Sigmund raises an eyebrow. If Eric is right about Ilina's motivations for wanting him on her side she clearly didn't share them with Sigmund.

"Who?" He asks, bouncing one of his knees in a ridiculously human gesture of nervousness, clearly uncomfortable with the thought that he might have to do something other than follow Ilina's orders.

"Scandinavia." In addition to not being the sharpest stake in the bunch, Sigmund must not be a very good poker player either cause both of his eyebrows go straight up into his hair when he hears that. He looks momentarily lost, but then pulls his cell phone out of his pants and makes a quick call.

Pam, who's been sitting there relatively quietly through all of this, just snorts as she sees the burly German Vampire calling his tiny little boss for permission.

"Hopefully she has him on an extend-o leash and not one of the old fashioned ones." Pam snorts, before looking back down at her fashion magazine. Sigmund speaks a few words into his phone, gets a reply and then says a few more things before hanging up.

"Make your arrangements." He says snippily, before turning his head away from us and ending the conversation. Eric just nods his head.

"Pam, go pack our things and help Sookie pack hers." Pam nods her head and stands up, ready to take me back downstairs, when it suddenly dawns on me that we're leaving town - hell, we're leaving the country for God knows how long, maybe not to return.

"Wait." I say, suddenly panicked. "I can't just leave without talking to Jason or Sam or Tara or Lafayette or…somebody first. I need to call someone!" I blurt out. Eric looks down on me sadly for a moment before reminding me exactly what kind of pickle we're in.

"Lover, you cannot let anyone know that you're leaving or that you're even alive. The Authority believes you're dead. If they should decide to attempt to verify this they'll go looking for your friends and family first and they'll be able to glamour anyone of them into giving up the details of your conversation. If we are to succeed at this then the story Ilina told them must stand." I swallow hard at that, remembering exactly what it is that she planned to tell them and I feel a knot growing in the pit of my stomach. It feels wrong to just up and leave again after everything that happened and yet Eric's completely right: if anyone comes looking for us, my friends can't know where I am, for our safety as well as for their own.

Another thought bites at the back of my brain too, one that whispers that no one missed me much before so they probably won't miss me again, but I tamp down on that hard. We won't be gone that long and we_ will_ be coming back. I'll deal with it all then. Nodding my head that I understand, I follow Pam downstairs and back into Eric's room. Pam pretty much just sits me on the bed and lets me watch as she starts packing for Eric and me at once.

"So what does one wear to meet a King or a Queen?" I ask off handedly, playing with the white ribbon that's sewn into the hem of my pretty pink dress, trying to distract myself. The only monarch I ever got to meet was Russell and I'm pretty sure that I shouldn't use any of those encounters as templates for future introductions to Vampire royalty (at least I'm really hoping not). Pam is bringing things out from the closet so fast I barely see her or them as they go into the suitcase, but I can hear her just fine.

"Well, you don't need to wear an evening gown if that's what you mean, but I'd leave the Target brand jeans and purple sweaters with pink and white hearts at home." She replies, snarky as ever, as she comes out of the closet holding several pretty dresses in a variety of colors and fabrics that must also belong to me.

"Gee, thanks so much, Pam." I answer back. Pam is probably the last person that I should be confessing a weakness to, even if we are closer now than we were before the whole joint abduction thing, but I just can't help myself.

"Will they like me?" I whisper into the space between us. Suddenly the blur that was Pam comes to stand still right in front of me. Taking my chin by one finger she lifts my head so that we're eye to eye.

"They're not Human, Sookie. They won't greet you with hugs and kisses and tell you how overjoyed they are you've made their grandson happy before launching into embarrassing tales of his awkward tween years. But they know how immensely he loves you and they know what he was like while you were missing. When they see how much you love him back, when they see how much more…alive he is with you at his side, they will accept you. Besides, what are you worried about? You don't need their acceptance one way or the other. You have mine." Pam winks at me mischievously and then gets back down to packing.

~*S*~

When I come back upstairs later Eric is walking out of what looks like his office, holding three small booklets. He hands one to me. Looking down at it, I realize it's a passport. Opening it up, I see that it has several stamps in it already, before coming to the ID page. There, clear as day, is an extremely recent picture of me next to the name: Anna Thorvalderson. I look between what is clearly a falsified document and my Vampire a few times before closing it in a huff.

"You weren't joking when you said you had Pam get me _everything_ I might need." Eric just shrugs his shoulders.

"It never hurts to be prepared, lover." Eric puts his passport into my hand as well, before laying a quick kiss to the top of my head and turning to lock his office and set the security code.

"What exactly were you preparing for?" I ask, wondering how he managed to do this so quickly, and why.

"I admit to being concerned with Bill's continued interest in you even after you made yourself quite clear. I thought it best to be ready for all contingencies." I flip though Eric's passport as he says all this and try to tamp down on the warm, gooey feeling spreading though my insides when I notice that his fake passport reads: Alexander Thorvaldersen. We're traveling as husband and wife.

Deciding not to think too much about how I'm actually getting emotional over the fact that my boyfriend had matching illegal documentation made for us to ease our flight from the country after faking our own deaths, then that we're fleeing the country after faking our own deaths or the fact that it probably means I couldn't see that boat to normal with the help of satellite technology as it's now on a completely different planet than me, I choose to be dog with a bone about the Bill thing.

"You were afraid of Bill?" I ask, raising my eyebrow and trying to keep the sarcasm out of my voice all at the same time. Eric looks at me with a cocked eyebrow of his own before snorting loudly.

"Hardly. I was afraid, however, that after ending him, in any number of enjoyable ways, we would need to flee the country so that I was not either arrested for treason or made King in his place." That Eric's not actually sure which one would have been the consequence of his actions is a little chilling and maybe not such a bad reason these Authority people need to go. But before I can make any kind of response, Eric excuses himself and heads downstairs.

He's only gone for a moment or two but, when he arrives back upstairs with Pam in tow, I'm shocked at both their appearances. It's not that much has changed - we're not dying hair and putting on fake plaster facial prosthetics or anything - it's just that they're really dressed not like themselves.

Pam, who not a half hour ago was mocking my "Target brand" jeans and ugly sweaters, emerges holding a rolling suitcase and wearing an actual pair of jeans, a pink Hello Kitty t-shirt and, honest to God, pink, sparkly converse sneakers with her hair pulled back into a pony tail and Eric…well Eric looks pretty much like the sophisticated version of his amnesia self: loose fitting, low slung jeans, soft-looking, crème colored cashmere sweater and hair flopping all over the place.

Eric sees my raised eyebrow and smiles sweetly at me, looking for all the world like he's going to ask me to go swimming in the pond with him after dawn, and answers my unspoken question.

"Pam and I thought we'd attract less attention dressed this way." I suppose that's a good thing. With all the video cameras all over the airport, without all the black and leather people might not even notice they're Vampires (at least not right away). Of course we're still traveling with Sigmund and his two goons, who are wearing nothing but black and leather (well Kevlar), but I guess they still don't look like Eric Northman and Pam Beaufort this way, which is hopefully good enough to keep us from being noticed and caught.

"We should leave now." Sigmund says curtly, before opening the front door and walking out. Eric just smirks a little at our jailer's obvious pissiness and then holds out his arm for me to take. Winding mine through his, we walk out to the car with Pam behind us. This time, Eric joins me in the backseat, giving Pam the pleasure of riding shotgun with Sigmund, as we make our way to Shreveport Regional Airport.

The drive is a short one and we're at the airport in about a half an hour, but I'm a little shocked when we breeze past the Anubis terminal, headed for American Airlines instead. Eric must sense my question because he chuckles a little bit.

"Most Vampires will only travel Anubis now, but it costs a great deal of money. We're more likely to stay off the radar screens of those who might look for us if we travel a normal Human airline." Once again, there are a lot of different things going on in Eric's one simple sentence, but as usual I latch on to the thought that's probably least relevant at the moment.

"Are there Vampires without money?" I ask, genuinely curious. This time it's Pam who makes the derisive sounding snort.

"Only the stupid ones." She answers, as we park in the long term lot and start walking over the bridge to the terminal.

"So, even though you guys will probably still stick out like a sore thumb on a plain full of Humans," cashmere sweaters and sexy floppy hair notwithstanding, I add silently, "you'll be less conspicuous to other Vampires because they'll assume you guys are nobodies if you're forced to pack in with the…vermin?" Gah, I'm liking that Pam and I are getting closer and all but I'm really afraid, if I'm not careful, she's going to start rubbing off on me. Pam actually laughs triumphantly at the sound of me saying that word and I contemplate, for just a moment, maybe stabbing her with a number two pencil during the inflight movie.

"Ding, ding, ding, give the lady a prize!" Pam answers back. Oh it's going to be a lovely flight!


	13. Chapter 13

_**A/N:**__ Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone's recovering nicely from Turkey day. I had this ready to go so I thought I'd post it today. Ready to meet the grandparents?_

_Thanks as always to everyone who's been reading, reviewing, alerting and favoriting, it makes my day like you wouldn't believe! And thank you, as always, to my beta, Sheknitsnicely! You are the best!_

_**Disclaimer:**__ I don't own them, but I can't help but be thrilled that during their transfer to the Washington State Prison system for the upcoming trial, Mr. Compton's coffin was accidentally tipped over, causing him to be spilled out on the roadway during broad daylight and 'unfortunately' incinerated before anyone was able to get to him. Remembering his possible fates if convicted, Mr. Ball was heard weeping and wishing allowed that he could meet the same quick fate!_

Five same day, first class tickets from Shreveport Regional Airport, LA to John F. Kennedy International in NYC: fifteen thousand dollars. In flight use of a sky phone to make international calls to Sweden, Switzerland and who the heck knows what those other languages were: two hundred dollars a pop. Seeing and 'hearing' the reactions of ten exhausted, overweight business men to the fact that five Vampires and lil' ol' me would be traveling with them: priceless. Telepathy: don't I wish I could leave home without it.

After the initial shock, fear and instinctual fight or flight responses calmed down though, things actually seemed to go pretty well. Eric made sure that I ate my weight in the best airline food money can buy while Sigmund, his men and Pam all did their best to ignore each other and everyone else by burying themselves in their headphones and personal video screens. All the while, Eric had his arm around me, rubbing his hand soothingly up and down my arm while making more calls and speaking more languages than I would have given any one person credit for knowing and, by the time he was done, we were landing in New York City.

After deplaning, as Pam made a point of telling me it's called, Eric steered us through the terminal, down a long corridor and away from the masses of other people till we got to a security station. Handing over all of our passports at once, Eric gave the guard a long drilling stare.

"Mr. Thorvalderson, I hope your flight from Louisiana was a pleasant one. Your jet was pulled out of its hanger and brought to the gate an hour ago. The crew are just wrapping up their pre-flight check while the plane finishes fueling. You're free to board at any time though." The guard says a little shakily, as he hands back our passports. Without missing a beat, Eric takes our passports and catches the guard's eyes all at the same time. I can actually feel the moment the guy's thoughts turn off and…geez is that Metallica playing in his head? Good grief!

"Go and do whatever else you have to do for the night. No one is boarding the private plane at this gate. You waited here for some time, but for nothing." The guard just nods his head slowly and walks off, mumbling to himself about how much he hates his job and how he's going to complain about someone named Trish for never getting the VIP boarding schedules correct.

As soon as the guard disappears in the opposite direction, we all head down the rest of the corridor to a small but nicely furnished gate area. There are two people waiting at the gate. One, a smiling lady, looks to be an airport employee and the other, more casually dressed person, is apparently our pilot.

As soon as we approach, Pam walks up in front of the pretty airport employee and begins to glamour her to forget that she saw us or that anyone boarded the plane and our pilot walks over to the small station by the gate and begins fiddling with the computer there.

"What's he doing?" I ask Eric in a whisper, although I suppose that there isn't really a reason to whisper now, since the airport lady is walking away in the same daze as the security guard, the tune to 'Star Wars' playing over and over in her head. Eric leads us down the ramp onto the plane as he answers.

"Jan is one of Ulrich's pilots. He's changing the information in the airport's computer system so that it appears the plane has no passengers. Idonea often buys things sight unseen from stores in the city and has them brought by jet to her in Sweden, so it won't seem unusual that their plane is flying out without any passengers.

Ulrich and Idonea's private plane is, in one word, amazing. Maybe it really isn't - it's not like I have anything to compare it to - but to a small town girl whose only other trip outside of Louisiana was to Dallas, it's just unbelievable. The plane is about as big as the one we flew to get here, but it's all luxury. The main area looks more like a giant living room than a plane cabin, with several comfy recliners and two large leather couches centered around a coffee table, a huge flat screen TV mounted on the back wall, and a wet bar in one corner.

As I'm taking it all in, a flight attendant comes into the cabin and takes Sigmund and his guys through to the back of the plane where there's apparently a room with travel coffins for them to use once the sun rises.

Once we're all settled, the plane takes off and we're in the air in no time. Two hours into the flight, the Vampires decide it's time for them to sleep for the day and they all shove off to the back room. I realize that I'm feeling kind of tired as well and, since there's still about eight hours left in the flight, I decide that it's time to get some sleep myself.

Taking my toothbrush and toothpaste from my carry-on, I decide to use the decidedly nicer than standard bathroom at the back of the plane to wash up before tucking myself into one of the nice leather couches.

I barely have my hand on the door when I feel someone come up from behind me. Before I can even process what's happening, a large arm snakes around my middle, hauling me up against a huge chest and pushing me through the door. I dimly hear the sound of the bathroom door locking as I'm pushed up against the counter, my front half bent over it and my hands bracing themselves on the marble counter top. Looking up, ready to scream bloody murder, I see the face of my newest kidnapper. He's smiling wide with a look that's a perfect combination of predatory mischief and hungry arousal.

"Cheese and rice, you scared me half to death! I thought you were supposed to be sleeping?" I ask crossly, with a raised eyebrow. My captor just smiles wider, his body coming up behind me, caging mine to the counter as his face dips into my hair, his nose caressing up and down the side of my throat.

"You didn't think I'd let an opportunity like this pass by untaken did you, lover?" I want to tell him that he might as well have, but as I push back trying to get free, I end up grinding my bottom into the very prominent, very hard bulge in his jeans, causing us both to groan. "Have you ever done this before?" He asks me after a moment, his mouth starting to nip a path from my ear to my collar bone.

"Brushed my teeth before going to bed? Every night; you should know that by now." I answer him back with as much indignation as I can muster, which isn't much considering one of his hands has left the countertop to run up the length of my leg, starting at the hem of my pretty, pink dress and sliding underneath it, taking the skirt up as he goes. "Eric, ladies do not have sex in airplane bathrooms, not even private airplane bathrooms." I finish, my voice a great deal more breathy than reproaching.

"If that's so then this lady is in for quite a shock because she's not leaving this bathroom anything but thoroughly fucked." He retorts hotly, nosing aside my sweater and sucking lightly on my shoulder as the hand under my skirt reaches the juncture between my thighs and begins to toy with the edges of my lace panties.

I know that Eric can feel through our bond that my resistance, if I ever had any in me to begin with, is all but gone. I want him six ways to Sunday and I always will, but I keep playing our game anyway, knowing that my stubborn defiance is one of the things that first intrigued him and that he still finds frustratingly appealing about me.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping right now? What if someone hears us?" I ask, just to ask, even as I begin to move my bottom with purpose against his rock hard erection. I hear a little growl and see Eric smile triumphantly in the mirror as his fingers finally brush aside the fabric of my panties and begin to play through my folds.

"Everyone else has gone to their rest for the day and the staff know better than to go beyond the main cabin after sunrise. It's just you and I lover." He says the last as two fingers push deep inside of me and his thumb begins to caress my nub. I barely recognize the needy moan I hear as my own, but it is. "Watch us." He commands softly as our eyes meet in the mirror for a single second before his head descends again, his lips devouring the back and sides of my neck and his fingers starting to pump in and out of me in a steady, thought numbing rhythm.

I can't help myself and I start to move with him, riding his hand even as one of my own reaches behind me, between us, cupping him through his jeans and searching blindly for his fly. My fingers work on autopilot, snapping the button at his waist and lowering the zipper under it, until I have him in my hand. This time the needy groan is his as I pull him out and begin stroking up and down his length in time to the thrusting of his fingers. Eric's head lifts from my neck again and our eyes lock in the mirror once more as we work each other hard.

"God Sookie, you look so sweet and proper in this dress, the perfect lady. It makes me want to bite you and fuck you and rub myself all over you!" He grinds out between clenched teeth, as the fingers inside me curl forward, hitting that spot that makes rational thought impossible and just like that I'm coming hard, my muscles clenching around his fingers and my juices spilling out onto his hand.

I've barely finished screaming my pleasure before the skirt of my little dress is up around my waist and Eric's pants are on the floor. Both of his hands leave their places to meet on my hips. Brushing my panties to the side once more, he surges forward and in one smooth, strong thrust he's buried completely inside of me.

For a second we're both still, savoring the feeling of his invasion and watching each others' reactions in the mirror and then without a word Eric starts to move. He pulls almost completely out of me in an achingly slow movement and then rams back in all the way to the hilt, hard and quick.

"Ahh, God!" I cry, as the pleasure of it explodes like white hot heat from my pussy all the way to my toes and I rear back into him, using the counter for leverage. One of Eric's arms comes around me, pressing my front into his back, his hand pushing its way into the top of my dress to take a hold of my breast, pinching and twisting the nipple in time with his thrusts.

"God Sookie, love you so much, love your tight, sweet, little pussy so much. Come for me lover." As always, Eric's dirty words are almost as much of a turn on as his actual sexing skills and, after one last hard tweak to my nipple and one more deep thrust, I end up coming again, falling off the precipice as my body goes limp in his arms. The feeling of my muscles clamping down on his cock brings him with me and, after just a moment, his shout of pleasure joins mine.

After long minutes, during which we both try to concentrate on just remaining upright, Eric gently pulls out of me, rearranging my dress nicely around me and turning me around. The look he gives me when we're face to face is so sweet and gentle it nearly breaks my heart. Without saying a thing, he cups my cheeks in his hands and gives me a tender kiss, his lips pressing almost chastely against my own.

"You're magnificent!" He whispers against my lips before pulling me into his arms for a fierce hug.

We clean up quickly, Eric even putting toothpaste on my brush for me, and then he picks me up and carries me back into the main cabin. The sun is already up, but the cabin has blackout shades that automatically come down whenever the plane is flying during daylight, making it safe for him to walk around. Laying me gently on one of the couches, Eric covers me with a blanket and kisses me softly one more time.

"It will still be daylight when you land in Stockholm. Jan has all of our documentation and he'll help you go through customs and take you through the airport. Ulrich will have a private car meet you. It will be about another three hours' drive to Vadstena once you land. Jan and the car driver are both at your service, Sookie. Do not hesitate to ask them for whatever you need or want and please, lover, make sure to eat! " Eric adds the last with an interesting combination of a sweet smile and a hard glint to his eyes, knowing that I forget to eat sometimes with all the mayhem that goes on around us.

Nodding sleepily, I watching him walk to the back of the plane, turning only once to tell me he loves me before locking the door to the coffin room behind him. As soon as I hear the lock click, my eyes close and I'm dead to the world.

~*E*~

I end up sleeping through the rest of the flight and wake up only when Jan gently nudges me. Just as Eric said he would, Jan helps me navigate through customs. Everyone at the airport speaks English, which is a huge relief, but I'm still happy to have him there since I've never done anything remotely like this before.

When I see the black SUV waiting for us, I almost groan. The thought of sitting for anymore traveling makes me want to pull my hair out, but I just smile in thanks as Jan helps me into the back and wishes me a safe rest of my journey.

A large van follows behind, carrying Eric, Pam and the bunch, still in their coffins, and I just try to veg out and watch the scenery around me change. Stockholm, or what little of it I saw, was quite beautiful but once we leave the city and begin to travel down the highways, I let the beautiful woods that surround us just sort of lull me back into a little dreamland.

"We're here." The driver says to me after I can't say how long, and I lift my head just in time to see us go through a large wrought iron gate. We wind our way up a little paved path, through more thick woods, going slightly up hill until we reach a gleaming lake. Just beyond it is a giant stone castle with beautiful old looking turrets. The driver takes us over a stone bridge directly into the courtyard of the main tower, where we park.

After helping me out of the car, in gentlemanly fashion, Ulrich's driver hands me off to an elderly woman, who's waiting at the main entrance with a kind smile on her face. She reminds me just a little bit of Gran and it relaxes me right away.

"You must be Ms. Stackhouse." She says, with a thick accent.

"Yes, I am." I answer back, holding out my hand to her. She clasps it warmly.

"I'm so glad you arrived safely. Their majesties were worried for you all. I'm Mrs. Osterhalle, the Head of Household. Please come with me and I'll get you situated in Sheriff Northman's usual rooms.

The castle is huge and amazing and, as we walk through corridors and up winding stairs, Mrs. Osterhalle tells me small stories about its history. The castle is apparently 'new', having just been built in fifteen fifty-four by the Human ruler at the time to defend Stockholm against threats from the south and only acquired by their majesties several centuries ago.

Eric's apartments are in the west wing of the castle in the circular tower and the room is just beautiful. It's very masculinly furnished, with dark wood and plush throws in royal blues, forest greens and creams, but the gigantic four poster bed with deep green, velvet tapestries hung around it is like a little girl's princess dream and I have to literally squash down the urge to take a running leap onto it and see if it's as soft and bouncy as it looks.

Mrs. Osterhalle shows me where the adjoining bathroom is and promises to bring me a hearty dinner, letting me know that sunset is only about two hours away, just as two big burly men come through the wooden double doors carrying Eric's travel coffin and laying it down gently on the stone floor.

When everyone is gone, I decide to take a shower and wash off the hours of travel before dressing for the evening. When I come out of the bathroom, fresh and clean, an hour later there's a lovely covered tray with food for me waiting at a small table before the enormous fireplace that lines one wall. Lifting the lid, I almost cry with surprise at what I see.

I'm doubting that the Swedes usually have fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy and collard greens for dinner with sweet tea on the side, and so I'm thoroughly touched to not only find that it's been made for me, but that it actually tastes perfect, as if the person who cooked it made it every night.

It's so good that, with no one around to watch me eat like a pig, I down it all in a shamefully short space of time and move on to my biggest dilemma for the night: what to wear. I'd snort at the thought of me obsessing over something as silly as clothing, but I desperately want to make a good impression on Ulrich and Idonea and all I can think the entire time that I'm looking at one dress after another is that the last time they saw Eric he was near suicidal…over me. If he was my kin, I'd be shit pissed that someone could have that kind of horrible, negative effect on a family member of mine. What if they hate me? What if they won't forgive me? What if they think I'm not worthy of him?

Giving up after a half hour of doing nothing but staring and cussing, I decide that everything Pam picked for me is lovely and I just close my eyes and point. When I open them up again, my finger has landed on a pretty blue silk wrap dress. Shrugging, I shed my little cotton bathrobe and start dressing.

Pam must not be all that confident in my ability to match things because I find an entire suitcase of shoes to go with my dresses and, to make sure that I don't make any mistakes when she isn't around to dress me like her very own 'Back Country Barbie', each pair of shoes matches its corresponding dress in color. So all I have to do is pull on the pair of pretty, blue suede heels that go with my dress, humming the Elvis song as I do and laughing a little that Pam probably didn't get that little joke while she was doing all this.

I'm just finishing up, running a brush through my hair, when I hear the sound of Eric's travel coffin opening. He's out of it and standing behind me in yet another mirror before I can even turn around to look at him.

"Will I do?" I ask quietly, smiling nervously at our reflections. Eric gives me a raised eyebrow at first, clearly not understanding my question, and then his face goes dark and angry. It's not the reaction that I was expecting and so, when he turns me around and crashes his lips down onto mine, I'm more than a little bit shocked. Once I've been kissed breathless, Eric releases my mouth letting me take in some much needed air.

"You more than 'do', Sookie. When will you understand that you're like the sun itself to my kind…to me? Don't ever doubt yourself, lover. You are more than your upbringing, more than what the worthless Humans who've always surrounded you have tried to make you believe you are. You are beautiful, strong and special and I am yours. You will never simply 'do'!" Eric's words are filled with a kind of angry adoration and, despite the fact that it's a very dark emotion, I find myself willingly drowning in it as he wraps himself around me, pulling me flush against his chest and smothering me in soft, hungry kisses.

Eric's kisses become more heated and I start to think that my pretty blue dress isn't going to see much more than the floor, when he begins to nip me and I feel a sharp stinging sensation. Yelping a little at the surprise I pull away slightly, staring at him in shock.

"What is it?" He asks, bewildered at my response. His expression goes even more so when I bring my hand to his mouth and pull his upper lip up.

"Holy S!" I exclaim. "Eric look." I gesture to the mirror. Eric leans over and I see the exact moment he sees what I felt. There, just poking out of his gums, are two tiny, sharp little points. It's only been two nights since he pulled out his fangs but they're already growing back. "Is that normal?" I ask, realizing, even as I do, that it just can't be. If his fangs would have grown back in just a matter of days, there isn't any way he would have been so upset about losing them.

"No." Eric answers quietly, his voice filled with bemused awe, confirming my thoughts. "It usually takes months, sometimes up to a year for a Vampire's fangs to grow back. I don't understand." He says, his face contorting into any number of expressions as he tries to puzzle it through, finally ending on a huge smile that he directs at me. It's so blindingly bright and beautiful that I almost feel like he's the one who's actually sunlight. "It must be your blood." Eric says, his smile turning to laughter as he picks me up and swings me around, kissing me like a crazy person.

I laugh right on with him, never happier in my life to have that little bit of Fairy in my blood than I am now. When Eric sets me down again, there's a look of near worshipfulness in his gaze.

"Sookie, I…." I put my fingers over his mouth and go up on my tiptoes one more time, kissing him this time.

"I love you too!" I say. "Now, get dressed." I order, putting an end to our sappy moment by slapping him on the butt. Eric just waggles his eyebrow at me, knowing how very much I love that butt, before heading into the bathroom to shower and change.

Ten minutes later, he emerges dressed and ready to go downstairs. As we're leaving his room we're met by Pam, who looks me up and down with an appraising eye before giving me a smile of approval. Ridiculous as it may seem, knowing Pam likes what I picked makes me feel just that little bit better and I hold my head up high as we head down the winding stone staircase and across the large open halls to a pair of double doors.

I don't know exactly what I was expecting, maybe the audience chamber from one of those medieval period movies, but what I get instead is a lovely library lined with books from one wall to the other, separated only by large windows that let the moonlight filter in and lamps that illuminate the space with warm, soft light. In the middle of the room, sitting in two large arm chairs, surrounded by a group of people, are two Vampires who look nothing like what I would have expected. As we walk slowly towards them, I take the chance to study them both, and I'm astonished.

My first thought is that Vampires must learn early on to leave off judging people by their appearances, which would make sense since a Vampire's exterior is no indication of either how strong or how old they actually are, but it also would explain why Eric says that he can't understand why Ulrich chose Godric to be his child, because based on nothing more than appearance, the answer is quite obvious to me.

If Ulrich made Godric because he was looking to replace his brother, he really couldn't have done better. The physical resemblance between the two is astounding. Ulrich's short brown hair and dark depthless eyes are almost exact copies of Godric's, as are his youthful appearance, which makes him seem to be only about fifteen, and his short stature.

The difference between them, though, is equally obvious. Where Godric seemed surrounded by a quiet wisdom and a deep sorrow, Ulrich is near bursting with life and authority, the air around him fairly crackling with power. Though he and Eric look nothing alike, his presence and demeanor remind me intensely of Eric's: beauty and power radiating out in such a degree that it feels imperative to look at him and impossible to look away once you have. With both Ulrich and Eric in the room, the large library suddenly seems too small for the rest of us mere earthly beings.

As we approach, Ulrich stands and, as he does, he takes the hand of the person beside him, drawing my attention away from him for the first time and to his Queen. If Ulrich is physically like Godric then Idonea is his exact opposite. The boy king's wife is a woman full grown, appearing to have been in her mid to late twenties when turned, and beautiful in a way that's hard to describe. With her long, golden hair falling to her waist in soft curls and frosty blue eyes that rival Eric's for their icy beauty, she seems like a work of art come to life. She's tall, almost a head taller than Ulrich, and thin, with a lovely, willowy figure that would make any model jealous, and she reminds me of a painting of the Virgin Mary that I saw once when I was little girl, in a church Gran took me to in New Orleans.

The looks on both of their faces are stone-like as Eric leaves Pam and I a few steps away from them and approaches on his own, bowing low before Ulrich, who nods at him in acknowledgement, and then turning and, with great reverence, going down on one knee before Idonea.

Idonea's expression softens in all of a second and she smiles beatifically as she brings one hand from her side to brush through Eric's hair, the look of affection on her face unmistakable.

Eric remains kneeling but looks up at her, his expression hidden from my position behind him, but the bond is filled with a deep sense of peace and a loving reverence that feels so similar to what I remember feeling for my Gran. Peering at the others in the room, Idonea makes a sweeping gesture with her hand.

"Leave us." She says, her voice quietly commanding, with just a hint of an accent that I can't quite place.

The room empties quickly, until only the five of us are left. When the door closes behind us, Eric stands again and puts his arms around Idonea, who stands almost as tall as him. She returns his gesture, her smile never leaving her face.

"I am pleased beyond words to see you, my Eric. I only wish the circumstances were better." Eric releases her gently, smiling the whole time.

"As do I, Far Mor." He says, before turning and clasping Ulrich by the arm. The two of them share what looks to be the manly version of a hug, with lots of arm clasping and back clapping, before all three of them turn to face us.

Pam walks forward next, leaving me standing by myself, and does a little curtsey to both of them before receiving the same back clap from Ulrich and a gentle smile and head nod from Idonea, and then all four of them are looking at me.

Coming forward to take me by the arm, Eric pulls me into the shelter of his arm and brings me forward.

"This is my Sookie." He says, his words and our bond bursting with pride. Ulrich and Idonea both eye me appraisingly for a long moment, during which time I start to feel frightened and insecure all over again, and then both of their expressions turn suddenly warm.

"You are most welcome here, Sookie." Idonea says to me, turning her Madonna like smile on me and giving me a gracious bow.

"Always." Ulrich chimes in, before turning to face Eric, his smile turning dark and menacing. "Now, let's talk about who we'll be killing."

***Far Mor* - Grandmother (or literally 'Father's Mother' in Swedish)**


	14. Chapter 14

_**A/N:**__ Not much to say except thank you to everyone who's been reviewing, favoriting and alerting! I really can't tell y'all how much I appreciate knowing that you're enjoying the story! And to thank my beta, Sheknitsnicely, who is the rockingest beta EVER!_

_**Disclaimer:**__ I don't own them Alan Ball does although things are not looking good for him after the first day of testimony where the Prosecution was able to produce damning love letters written by Mr. Ball to one Bill Compton, promising to promote the second banana character to leading man in exchange for 'services' rendered._

As Eric catches Ulrich and Idonea up on all the gory details of the last couple of weeks, starting with Antonia's curse and finishing up with our current predicament, my mind starts to wander. Quite unexpectedly I find myself thinking back to Russell's words from just a few nights ago about the road not taken and all the seemingly little decisions that change the course of our lives. Crazy as a cracker barrel or not, Russell did manage to live three thousand years before meeting his true death, so I have to assume that he must have come to some kind of clarity about the workings of free will versus fate and yet, as I think back over the last several years of my life, I'm not sure if I've had too many of those crossroads moments.

I suppose I could have let Mack and Denise have their way with Bill the night he came into Merlotte's to check me out, but the truth was that he put on that show to lure me out. If I hadn't 'rescued' him, he would have gotten out of that mess on his own and tried to get me to give up my secret in a different way. So Vampires coming into my life was always a given from the moment Hadley opened her mouth, or her legs I guess, to Sophie-Anne. There wasn't anything I could have done to prevent that.

Same deal with getting rid of the Vampires. Once they knew what I was, they never would have left me alone. It's probably only Eric and Bill's unexpected feelings for me that prevented me from becoming their Queen's slave. So again, little decisions, but none of them mine, and if I know Eric not really his either, since I can't imagine him wanting to fall in love with anyone if he were given the choice. What we both feel, we feel maybe more despite our wills than because of them.

I could have chosen to let Bill rot in Jackson, but given that Russell was only interested in Bill to get to me, staying home instead of going to Mississippi wouldn't have kept him from trying to get me. I could have left Eric on the side of the road when he had amnesia, or chosen not to give in to my feelings for him. I could have chosen Bill after the dream that Claudine gave me or decided to walk away from both of them and be alone, but even if I had we'd still be in this mess.

Looking at Eric, still enumerating all the different ways in which we're screwed, I begin to feel like free will, or at least mine, doesn't count for very much. Maybe as messed up as this all is, I'm meant to be here, with him, fighting against the world for our chance to live life free of all the little decisions that other people make that keep putting us in danger. Deciding to love Eric, no matter what, feels like the one moment in my life where the choice that meant something was mine and, looking at this man who fell in love with me as much against his will and better judgment as I fell in love with him, I can't help but feel like I finally got something right. Just like that night that Claudine came to me in my dream, I realize that I could have taken my one meaningful decision and used it to give myself an easier life, a safer life, but even with all this crazy surrounding us, I'm glad I didn't. Fate or free will, I'd rather be here with him. I'll always choose to be with him, no matter what.

"And I thought you picked the wastes of Northern Louisiana because you were looking for a little peace and quiet." I come back to the conversation to hear Ulrich respond, with an ironic chuckle, after Eric finishes telling him everything. Looking over at me, Eric just smiles soft and true, his love for me shining out in the dim light of the library.

"Well, you know how it is when you start hanging around with Fairies." He replies, his head cocking to the side slightly to indicate that I'm the Fairy in question.

"Funny, my life was quiet as a sleeping lamb until people with fangs starting popping up in it." I reply, the disgruntled note in my voice totally belied by the sappy smile on my face. "You wouldn't trade it for the world." I say to him confidently, knowing from the bottom of my heart that, despite the crazy, he'll always choose me too.

"Not a single second of it." Eric answers. The surprised laugh from Idonea brings Eric and me out of our little world of teasing and dopey, kissy face making.

"It would appear not." She says lightly, clearly more exhilarated by Eric's story and the prospect of a good fight than worried by it.

"So as I understand things," Ulrich begins, "King Bill," Ulrich pauses momentarily to snicker slightly at the sound of that, "is dead as the Authority decreed. They believe that you are dead as well and that your bonded was murdered by your own hand. What of Pam?" He asks. Eric grimaces.

"She was not a part of their warrant so I hope that they will simply believe she's gone to ground after my demise. However, we cannot rule out the fact that they might be looking for her as well. If they are though, it is not with any great urgency since we were able to leave Louisiana without problems." Ulrich nods at that.

"You should know that the Authority named Bill's successor last night. They've given Louisiana to Peter Threadgill." Pam makes her first contribution to the conversation, at that point, by sighing in a dramatic, put upon way.

"He's not that bad." Eric says, shrugging. The look of confusion must be pretty evident on my face, because Pam turns to me and gives me the run down.

"Peter Threadgill is the King of Arkansas. Eric is right that he's not _that_ bad, per se. But he is an Authority ass kisser and notoriously lazy when it comes to keeping order in his kingdom. Being so close to him we're always having to clean up the mess when his ill-disciplined subjects venture into our territory. Sophie-Anne entertained the idea of a marriage with him at one point, but the negotiations came to something of a standstill after her impromptu marriage to Russell and subsequent untimely demise." Yeah, I can see how being forced to marry Russell and then being assassinated would put a dampener on someone's wedding plans.

"The fact remains that, without the Authority to keep order, there will no longer be room for weak monarchs such as your late King Bill. That may very well work to your advantage though Eric, if you decide you wish to return to Louisiana. Threadgill might welcome you back, regardless of your involvement in eliminating the Authority, simply to count a sheriff of proven strength among his assets." Idonea chimes in.

"What exactly are your dear adopted sister's plans for a post Authority world?" Ulrich asks, clasping his hands in front of him and scowling at the mention of Ilina. Eric only spreads his own hands out in an elegant gesture of uncertainty.

"I haven't yet had the opportunity to ask. Our decision to join this little scheme was not based on sound post-revolution planning. Sigmund hasn't been very forthcoming, but then I suppose it's not a surprise to anyone that he isn't the brains of this little insurrection." Ulrich just nods his head, rising from his chair and walking fluidly to the Library doors.

"Let's bring him in then, shall we, and see what, if anything, he will be willing to share with us." Ulrich speaks quickly and quietly to a guard standing on the other end of the doors and, just minutes later, Sigmund and his two goons come striding in.

"Majesties." He intones with a great deal of respect, bowing low at the waist to both Ulrich and Idonea.

"Sigmund, so lovely to see you again." Ulrich says flatly, the expression on his face clearly showing that it's not. "I have asked you to join us so that you can shed some light on the plans you have for ridding us of the Authority." Sigmund seems slightly taken aback at first that the pleasantries are so quickly over and the interrogation has begun, but after a moment he seems to get his head in the right place and nods solemnly.

"There is not much to tell, Majesty. We plan to rid ourselves of the Authority and hand complete control back to the monarchs, where it has always belonged. It is the monarchs who should have supremacy in their territories, not this band of power hungry dictators." He answers as if he's reciting a speech he's worked hard to memorize, maybe one taught to him by Ilina to sway said monarchs to their side.

"Clearly, of course, my question is simply how. It is no secret that we have never been fans of the Authority and, given the fact that they have blatantly attempted to harm the child of my child and those that are his, I can say that my patience with them has reached its limit. I find myself therefore inclined to lend support to your cause. However, you cannot fault me for wanting to know what your plans are, if indeed there are any, before committing myself." Ulrich says it all in a reasonable tone, as if we're talking about what they plan to serve for dinner tomorrow night instead of who we're planning on killing.

"Ilina, myself and those of us within the Authority have the complete and total confidence of the members. We will use this trust to our advantage. They will all be gathering in the next week to make plans regarding troubles they are having with several of the American monarchies. As at any time the members are gathered, they will have the enforcers there for the sake of security. During the meeting we will give our allies access to the compound and kill them all in one strike." Sigmund says, his voice confident. Ulrich simply nods.

"Your plan seems…sound. Eric tells me that you've gathered quite a force already. I am willing to add my own fighters to yours but I have to wonder, Sigmund, why you specifically are a part of this fight? You have worked for the Authority for many decades, have you not? Being employed by them has been quite profitable for you. Why are you so willing to…bite the hand that has so generously fed you?

We know each other only a little, but I can't believe that you, of all people, are that concerned with the general well-being of your fellow Vampires, oppressed by the Authority as you say they are, to risk your existence to free us all. After many centuries dealing with your masters, I have to wonder if this isn't all some elaborate scheme to root out treason among the monarchs. It would not be the first time the Authority has played such a game. They know that Idonea and I have no love for them. If they wanted to come after us, threatening Eric would be a most effective way to force my hand." Ulrich's tone continues to imply that we're all just discussing the weather - nothing big, nothing important happening here - but his distrust is apparent. Sigmund bristles at first, clearly struggling to determine whether or not Ulrich does indeed deserve his honesty, before he seems to come to some decision.

"What you say is true. The Authority has often entrapped those it wishes to be rid of. But I am being truthful with you. I am not one to believe myself more than I am, and my lack of… intellect is a secret to no one. But if I should meet the true death in this endeavor, then it will be happily so." Sigmund seems to want to leave it at that, but for some reason I feel compelled to speak.

"Why?" I ask. I'm not sure if this is one of those occasions where you're not supposed to speak until spoken to, because literally every head in the room turns towards me at that moment except Eric's, since he must know me just that well by now, but I've never been one to keep quiet and I'm not going to start now. Sigmund looks at me a little incredulously at first, but then I notice his face seems to soften as he takes in the way that Eric is sitting close to me, our hands entwined on Eric's knee, almost as if he knows what it feels like to touch someone that way: with love.

"They took something from me I can never have back and I have waited a long time to find those who could help me have my revenge." It's the first time I've heard Sigmund speak with anything like passion or conviction and I'm startled.

"What happened?" I question again, not able to stop myself. Sigmund's soft expression disappears in an astonishingly quick moment to be replaced by a gaze so full of anger and grief that I feel a little frightened by it.

"They killed my woman." He bites out from between clenched teeth. "She was a Werewolf. As they will no doubt tell you," he gestures contemptuously at Ulrich, Idonea, Eric and Pam, "Weres and Vampires do not mix. They are considered animals and we are superior to them. At the time I was the second of my Sheriff, a Vampire who I served loyally and who I believed to be my comrade. I confided in him about our relationship, believing that he would…understand. He did not and, instead, went to the Authority. The Magister they sent agreed with my Sheriff that our relationship was profane and, when it was discovered that we had shared blood, he felt the only way to rectify the situation was to exterminate her. They put her down like the animal they believed her to be, as I watched.

It took me many years to convince them that I had…repented of my sin and that I offered my service in earnest to atone for my mistake. And, though it flayed me to my very bones to do so, I have served them unswervingly ever since, in an attempt to make them believe in my loyalty. I waited decades to find those like Ilina who could help me exact justice for her death.

Ilina also served them faithfully. She enjoyed the power and position as much as I pretended to, but that changed when Godric met the sun. She is not one to care for others, but she cared for him, deeply, and believes the Authority is to blame for his decision to end his existence. With her help, we found others who would join us and she now believes we have enough support to make a stand. The Sheriff who betrayed me is now a member of the Authority and I have given Ilina my sword in the hope that, when the time comes, he will be at the end of it."

When he finishes, Sigmund just stands there with a look of defiance on his face. It's clear that he doesn't really care if Ulrich and Idonea join the fight at all, but he must know now, after his conversation with Ilina, that she wants it. And so after a moment where he seems to get himself back under control, he adds one last thing.

"Eric, they care nothing about what happens in backwoods Louisiana. They wanted you and Compton out of the way to take your woman. Ilina was correct when she said that, if they continue to exist and find out that she still lives, they will never stop coming after her. Fight with us, and convince them," he gestures to Ulrich and Idonea, "to fight with us too. Many of the monarchs may be petty and vain and power hungry, but one rat in each house is better than two." With that, Sigmund turns and, without waiting to be dismissed, begins walking towards the double doors.

"Wait." It's Idonea who speaks this time. Sigmund walks back to Idonea, giving her an obligatory bow and waits to hear what she says. "You have our support. I will send men with you when you leave tomorrow night," Idonea says the last as she looks hard at Ulrich, clearly telling him without words that the decision is made, "but I have one condition." Sigmund nods his head. "The men that I give you will be under the direct command of Eric. Is that understood?" Sigmund bows once more.

"Completely, Majesty." With that, he turns again and walks out without another word.

"I had no intention of letting Eric and Pam go into this alone." Ulrich says after the doors have closed again, a look of contrition on his face.

"I know dear." She replies, patting his hand in a gesture that almost seems patronizing. "Now, I think your bonded looks tired and hungry, Eric. Why don't you retire and enjoy the rest of your evening and Ulrich and I will make the necessary plans." Eric inclines his head towards her and rises out of his chair, holding out his hand to help me up as well. We both say goodnight and leave Pam with them, happily catching up on all the latest fashion trends with Idonea as Ulrich's eyes go a little glassy.

When we're back upstairs in our room, I see that someone has left another tray of food at the little table in front of the fireplace. Sitting at it, I lift the lid and find another wonderful dish of southern comfort: chicken and dumplings with a little side salad. Pouring a glass of sweet tea, I dig in as Eric starts a fire.

Once it's going nicely, he takes the other chair at the little table, watching me eat and playing with the little butter knife that was on my tray. We sit in companionable silence for a little while, coming as close to sharing a meal together as we probably ever will, until I'm mostly finished.

"Do you believe him? Sigmund I mean." I ask, taking a sip of my tea. Eric looks up from his contemplation of the knife and I can feel him really thinking about his answer.

"Last night I would have said yes, if for no other reason than that I wouldn't have believed Sigmund capable of pulling off such a deception. However, if what he said tonight is really true and he has been lying to the Authority for decades, I will have to give him more credit from now on both for cunning and for deception.

Still, I do not believe that even the Authority would go through all the trouble of putting together such an elaborate ruse merely to get Ulrich and Idonea to commit treason. They are very powerful and they have ruled this kingdom since well before the Authority existed. It is simply not in the Authority's best interest to attempt to play with them. Doing so would very likely not end well for them. It's why, despite the contentious nature of the relationship, the Authority has mostly left Scandinavia alone all these years. The Authority makes no problems for Ulrich and Idonea and, in return, they allow the Authority to continue to play God with everyone else and pay lip service to their edicts. Unless someone with a very skewed sense of reality is suddenly calling the shots, I simply don't think they would do it." I nod at him, but I'm still worried.

"But wouldn't killing you be the sort of thing that would kinda rock the boat?" Eric smiles at me when I say that, and I can tell that he's appreciating my thinking through every angle with him.

"Perhaps, but Ulrich and Idonea did not involve themselves after Godric's death. Though the Authority was not directly responsible for that, no one would have blamed them for seeking vengeance. Godric was the master of his own destiny and so am I. If the decisions I made caused the Authority to sentence me to death, I do not believe that Ulrich would have sought revenge for it. Ulrich has always let Godric and I stand on our own two feet. He and Idonea have only ever involved themselves when their help was asked for. No, I believe that Sigmund is telling the truth." I guess we're pretty much still in the situation we were two nights ago. We really don't have any choice but to take the intentions of those around us at anything other than face value.

I never realized, until I started hanging with Vampires, how much of a disadvantage normal people have. If I've ever whined about anything in life, it was the fact that I never got to have illusions about other people. When my Gran would say "oh so and so is such a wonderful person" I was able to tell her, without a doubt, that they weren't and why. When girls in school use to tell me they wanted to be my friend, I knew that they were only saying it hoping that, by hanging around with me, they'd get my brother's attention. When drunken frat boys came into Merlotte's planning on skipping out without tipping me, I knew it and didn't feel a bit bad about spitting in their beer. I've always known exactly what everyone was really about, and I always hated it. It's one of the reasons I like Vampires so much: they give me the chance to feel normal. But right now, I'm not digging being just as much in the dark as everyone else always is.

Not being able to rifle around in Sigmund or Ilina's brains to find out what their true intentions are is frustrating and just plain scary. While it's normally wonderful not to hear someone's every incessant, annoying and probably blood thirsty (considering these are Vampires we're talking about) thought, I'm seriously thinking I'd sacrifice a little of that peace just to know that we aren't going to get screwed over again.

"What are you thinking?" Eric asks me, and I realize that I've been silent for quite a while now.

"I'm wishing that I could tell you for sure whether Sigmund is being truthful." I say. Eric just smiles softly at me, putting down the butter knife and standing. Taking my hand, he pulls me to stand to and takes me into his arms.

"We'll make do, Sookie. I promised you that I would not let anything part us and I won't. We will make it through this and we will be victorious when it's over. After all, you and I have a date in a hundred years in my office at home. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I'm extremely obsessive compulsive when it comes to making my meetings." With that, Eric pulls me flush against his body and brings his lips down on mine.

With so much trouble and anxiety swirling around us, with all the stress and turmoil we've been through in the last few days I feel like I just need one moment where there's nothing but Eric and I enjoying how much we enjoy each other.

Pulling back out of his embrace, I kick off my shoes, loosen the tie to my dress and take that running leap I'd been thinking about all afternoon onto the bed. It's every bit as soft and bouncy as I thought it would be and, if I didn't have other things on my mind right now, I might get off of it, walk to the end of the room and take another couple of running jumps. Shelving that thought for later, I decide to take my dress completely off instead, tossing it onto an armchair by the bed and kneeling on my knees in the center of the fluffy mattress, crooking my finger and beckoning my Vampire to me.

Eric smiles wide, a look of total hunger coming over his face, and begins stalking slowly to the bed, shedding his clothes as he goes. By the time he's in front of me he's completely naked, his huge, beautiful body backlit by the fire and glowing in the room's soft light.

I feel almost frozen in place as I watch Eric climb up onto the mattress and begin to advance on me on his hands and knees, his eyes bright and gleaming predatorily as he does. I'm not in the least bit afraid of him, but something tells me he'll like this whole thing more if I try to get away from him and so I begin to move backward on the bed, still on my knees, as he comes closer and closer to me.

When my back hits the headboard, I end up landing on my butt on the pillows only to feel a large cool hand wrap itself around my ankle and pull, dragging me back to where Eric is now kneeling in the center of the bed.

For one long moment I just lay there, Eric kneeling in between my spread legs, and look at him. Just the sight of him makes me feel hot and wet and achy. The soft, low light in the room catches the gold flecks in his hair, making him look like the naughtiest, dirtiest angel that ever fell from heaven. It shimmers on his pale skin, highlighting every hard muscle and defined cut along his arms, chest and torso, all of them calling my eyes down to his erection, which juts out long, thick and hard, wanting to be admired and worshipped for its pure perfection, just like the rest of him. Who am I to argue with that?

Lifting up into a sitting position, I let my hand wrap around his base and watch his surprised intake of unnecessary breath as he realizes that I'm not in a teasing mood tonight. We have so much trouble still ahead of us, I just want to bring him pleasure and feel the pleasure he brings me in return.

I begin to stroke him, but only at the base as I sit up farther, moving my mouth slowly closer to his tip, letting him see as I wet my lips and open wide. Our eyes lock just as my tongue comes out to flick his head, and his in drawn breath turns into a pained hiss. I know he can see the triumph in my eyes, as I wrap my lips firmly around his head and slowly begin to suck his daunting length into my mouth. I love doing this to him. I love the feel of him and the taste of him, but most of all I love how much he loves it and how wild it makes him. He's never more mine than when his cock is in my mouth.

As I begin to move my mouth up and down on him, my lips meeting my hand on every down stroke and then pulling away so that I can scrape him lightly with my teeth as I pull back up, ending with a gentle nip right at his head, I feel his hands start to roam my body, one of them coming up to fist into my hair, not forcing anything right now, just sort of hanging on for the ride really, and the other stroking up and down my back until he finds the clasp of my bra.

I feel myself moan as his hand undoes the clasp and begins to pull it off of me, letting it hang from one strap in the crook of my elbow because, no matter how much he wants to put his hands on my breasts right now, he won't do anything that takes mine off his dick.

The hand that's not in my hair begins to palm my breasts, moving from one to the other to weigh and knead them both before beginning to pinch my nipples roughly. The pressure is just this side of pain and, for some reason, it turns me on more than I could have ever imagined. I start moaning non-stop and the vibration of it must feel wonderful on his shaft because, without even realizing it, Eric's hips begin to move subtly, driving his cock farther into my mouth each time I come down on him, and out almost to the tip every time I pull away. Finally, I just stay still and let him take control, letting him fuck my mouth and enjoying every second of it.

After only a few deep strokes, Eric lets out an almost pained sounding roar and comes, spurting his cool cum down my throat over and over again. I take it all, savoring the taste of this just as much as I do the taste of his skin.

When Eric comes back to himself he looks down at me and the sight of me, naked except for my soaked panties, sitting on the bed with him between my spread thighs, his cock still in my mouth, must turn him on all over again, because the next thing I know I'm flat on my back, my poor little panties being ripped from my body and my Viking's golden head moving with absolute, single-minded focus against my pussy.

This time, it's me who can't help but take a fistful of his hair as my hips start to lift off the bed, pushing my pussy into Eric's mouth and fucking his face as surely as he did mine. I'm so wound already from sucking him off and feeling him play with my tits that it only takes a few hard sucks of my clit and a single finger pushing into me for me to fall off the edge, screaming Eric's name and grabbing the bed sheets to keep from ripping out his hair.

As I try to get my head back together, I feel two strong arms wrapping around me and hauling me up. I barely have time to register that Eric is kneeling on the bed again and that he's pulled me onto his lap before I feel his cock, hard again already, pushing against my cleft, splitting my pussy open and driving inside of me.

I can't help the sob of pleasure that escapes me as I feel Eric start to plunge into me and it's all I can do to wrap my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist, resting my crossed ankles against his ass, feeling it flex, as he pumps into me in short, hard thrusts.

"Oh God, Eric, so good, so good. I…I need…bite me please!" I say, without thinking. It must take Eric a moment to register what I've said because I feel him pull away and thrust back into me one more time before he stops and looks at me. I don't know what to do, I'm terrified that I've ruined the moment when I realize that, even though they're still very tiny, he did scratch me with them earlier in the night without meaning to. Running my hand along his lips, I kiss him hard and wiggle against him, hoping to make him start moving again, as I whisper breathlessly in his ear. "Cut me with them."

Eric looks at me, stunned, for a single second and then I see an expression of total lust cross his face as he opens his mouth and brings his top teeth down onto my shoulder. Angling his head just right, Eric scrapes the sharp little point of one fang against my skin and cuts a red line from my shoulder to my neck.

I cry out again at the sensation but don't pull away. Instead I take one hand and fist it into his hair again, forcing his head down onto the cut which he begins to suck and lick as his hips start to move again, impaling me over and over until the feeling of him fucking me and drinking me causes another orgasm.

The sensation of my pussy squeezing him brings Eric too, and he comes right after me, muffling his shout of pleasure against the crook of my neck and using his arms to band around me, pressing me flush against him, my breasts crushed against his chest, my nipples scraping his skin, as he pumps erratically a few more times, before collapsing with me onto the bed.

We just lay there together, me breathing hard, my arms and legs still wrapped around him as Eric licks my wound closed, cutting his own tongue with the small points of his new fangs, and healing it with his blood.

"Traveling seems to agree with you, lover." He chuckles after a little bit, still licking my skin for no other reason than that he likes the taste of it. I just laugh a little in return.

"_You_ agree with me." I say after a little while. "I've never had so much sex. I didn't think anyone _could_ have this much sex and live, quite frankly." Suddenly Eric isn't lazily licking my shoulder anymore, he's gently but purposefully nipping up the side of my neck.

"Mmmh, trust me lover, the Human body is an amazing thing. You'd be shocked at what it can endure." Just then, Eric closes his teeth around the lobe of my ear and starts flicking it with his tongue as his hands begin to wander over my body again.

Turns out he was right. The Human body _ is_ an amazing thing and, apparently, the body of a mostly Human Fairy is even more so, as Eric ends up proving to me five more times, in five more positions, all over the room before I finally pass out from the most blissed out exhaustion I've ever felt.


	15. Chapter 15

_**A/N:**__ So…I make no more promises about where this story is going. I really had no idea when I started that it would get as AU as it has. We ditched Bon Temps, we killed a whole bunch of the regular characters and we're about to make total chaos in the Vampire world, other than knowing that I'm just sort of along for the ride here too. _

_With that said, I'll just thank my awesome beta Sheknitsnicely, who's been so awesome about this story getting so long and so weird and everyone who's been reading, reviewing, altering and favoriting. It means the world to me!_

_**Disclaimer:**__ I don't own them, but it was another bad day in court for Mr. Ball when the prosecution admitted his now infamous quote that "Bill and Sookie are soul mates" into evidence. I have a shovel if you'd like to dig yourself deeper Mr. Ball!_

The first thing that tells me that I'm no longer in a sex induced coma is my sense of hearing, which alerts me to the fact that there's someone in the room with us. I feel like I ought to open my eyes and see who this person is, but frankly, whoever they are, they're just not appealing enough to convince me I should move an inch from my Viking shaped body pillow.

Eric, in his daytime rest, warm from the body heat I'm sharing with him, is completely wrapped around my back, under the heavy fur and velvet blankets, his chin resting on top of my head, his arms banded around my middle and one big hand still cupping my breast like his own personal snuggly. It's an absolutely heavenly thing to wake up to and something that I've become addicted to in the last weeks.

Whoever is in the room with us must know they're no competition against my sleeping Vampire and so they pull out the big guns. I hear the sound of something being poured and then the hot, beautiful aroma of freshly made coffee assaults my nose and I know they've won. Devious bastards!

Opening my eye just a crack, I see the figure of Mrs. Ostehalle, arranging a tray and a pot of coffee on the little table by the fire. I can tell without the aid of a mirror that I'm probably blushing as red as a Granny Smith from one of Gran's trees right now.

"Good morning, dear." She says, in her very precise and accented English, no trace of embarrassment or discomfort on her face. Squirming out of Eric's grip, I sit up a little, pulling the covers up to my chin, and give her a bashful smile.

"Good morning, Ma'am." I reply, my own accent taking on a life of its own as I subconsciously attempt to prove that I'm a proper southern lady, despite the fact that I'm naked, spooned up against an equally naked man and probably sporting the worst case of 'sex hair' the world has ever seen.

"Did you sleep well?" She enquires as she arranges my cutlery. If I didn't know better, I'd say that she's teasing me. Ah well, she works for two Vampires who've apparently been married for eight hundred years. I suppose they get up to way more…interesting stuff than Eric and I have yet.

"Like the dead." I reply, trying to smile confidently. "Well, almost like the dead." I correct, gesturing to Eric's actually dead body beside me. Mrs. Osterhalle gives me a genuinely amused laugh.

"Well then, I'm sure you'll be hungry." She says after a moment, gesturing to my food. "When you're ready to come downstairs, the Queen has arranged for you to meet with a lady she thinks you'll find helpful. She'll be waiting in the library. Do you remember the way, or would you like me to come back for you?" I can feel my eyebrows rising high on my forehead.

"I'm pretty sure I remember the way. If you could beg this person to just give me about forty-five minutes, I'll be down as fast as I can." I answer her.

"Of course, dear. There's no need for you to hurry though, your visitor is at your disposal." With that, she gives me one last friendly smile and leaves, closing the door securely behind her.

I should probably feel rushed now that I know someone is waiting for me, but I can't stop myself from taking a moment to just look at Eric. I didn't get to sleep next to Bill very often, though I remember wanting to very badly at times, but when we got to Dallas and I finally got my wish I ended up finding the experience …disappointing. There wasn't really anything I could do with him when he was dead and it got boring watching him be dead after only a few minutes. It never fulfilled that desire I had, deep inside me, to wake up with the one I love.

More often than not in the last couple of weeks, my schedule and Eric's have pretty much aligned themselves and I have actually 'woken' with him. But even now, when I know he's going to be down for the count for another couple of hours, this feels different.

Even with my Human nose, I can smell Eric all over me and I can smell me all over him. I can feel how warm he still is from being snuggled right up against me. His beautiful hair is gleaming in the dim light from the lamp we left on, since the automatic shutters on the windows locked down securely about a half hour before dawn, making him look like the innocent, sweetly sexy version of that fallen angel from last night, and I feel compelled to cover his sleeping body in kisses and caresses before I leave him for the day, until there isn't a part of him that hasn't been touched by my mouth or my hands.

Getting up and leaving him to sleep actually feels…hard. Cuddling close to him for just a moment, I brush my favorite lock of hair from his forehead, letting my fingers massage along his scalp for just a second and my lips lay soft kisses on his forehead, his closed eyes, his nose and his finally his mouth.

"What are you doing to me?" I ask his sleeping face, laughing a little to try and dispel the ache for him that's starting in the pit of my stomach. "You can't possibly be ruining me for all other men even when you're dead!" I say, smiling against his mouth. Nothing happens, of course, and after a minute or two I shake myself out a little bit, making myself get up and get going. Sookie Stackhouse does not laze in bed.

Standing, I find my little robe in the bathroom and take care of the necessaries in there before sitting down to that still wonderfully hot cup of coffee. Lifting the tray, I nearly moan in ecstasy as I see a plate full of scrambled eggs, biscuits with sausage gravy and two nice, big slices of melon. I feel bad that I've been in this country for two days now and still haven't tried anything that even remotely resembles Swedish food, but whoever is making my meals is just so darn good: if I didn't think Gran would hear me from heaven, I'd tell them that it's the best Southern cooking I've ever had!

After eating, in shamefully record time again, showering and dressing casually, thanking God Pam used some common sense and didn't only pack me dresses and heels, I make my way downstairs and back to the library.

When I open the door, I'm a little taken aback. Everything seems to look bigger during the day, I've noticed, and Ulrich and Idonea's library is no exception. I could tell it was just this side of huge last night, but with only a few lamps and a fire for light there were large sections of the room that were nothing but shadow.

This morning there's a wealth of sunlight pouring through the floor to ceiling windows, lighting every nook and cranny of the room, and it's just amazing. The room itself isn't overly enormous - for a library - being maybe the size of my living room, dining room and kitchen combined, but it makes up for the lack of square footage on the ground by having a ceiling twice as high as a normal room. The room is at least two stories, maybe more, and in the daylight I can see that every space in between the windows is taken up by books.

I'm trying real hard not to look like the country cousin I suppose I am, but honestly, if whoever cooks my meals would agree to have them brought here, I could live and die happily in this one room and never leave. I'm still marveling at all the beautiful books when the sound of a throat clearing catches my attention.

I turn towards the sound and see a woman standing by an end table along the back wall. Her long red hair is the first thing to catch my attention and it gleams against the bright morning sunlight. The next thing I notice are her pretty green eyes and the light dusting of freckles along her face. As the woman walks up to me, I see that she's a bit taller than I am and graceful, looking more as though she's floating towards me than actually walking.

All put together, something about her sets off my alarm bells. My body seems to instinctually put two and two together. Great beauty, tall stature, graceful movements, a certain something that screams not Human: Fairy.

Without even thinking about it, I begin walking backwards, my hands coming up in front of me in a gesture that says 'stay back' which, if this woman is really a Fairy, she'll know I can totally back up with some action. Apparently she gets it because she stops coming towards me and starts speaking instead.

"You must be Sookie." She starts out with a lilting Irish sounding accent to her words, her hands coming up in a mirror like gesture of mine. "I promise that I'm not here to hurt you. Queen Idonea asked me to come and meet you today." Knowing that Idonea sent her seems to make me a little less wary and I put my hands down but don't make any movements towards her. She does the same, thankfully staying put as well.

"Why would she do that? You're a Fairy." I say, my voice just this side of panicked, though I can say proudly that it doesn't shake. The woman smiles gently and shakes her head.

"Not a Fairy," she corrects, "a part-Fairy Human like yourself, although I believe that I am a tad bit more Fae than you are. My Fairy relation is my maternal grandmother."

"Okay…you still haven't answered my question though?" I say, still not wanting to move any closer to her.

"_Queen Idonea thought that I might be able to help you a bit with your Fairy gifts before you leave here."_ This time the words are spoken in my head and it makes me jump back a little in surprise, even though it probably shouldn't.

"Oh, okay, I guess." I respond aloud, brilliantly. The woman just smiles at me.

"I promise that I have no intention of harming you, Sookie. Her Majesty would never have let me into her home if she was in the least bit suspicious of my loyalty, or thought I might prove dangerous to the bonded of someone so close to her. I'm just as Human as you are; I can't kidnap you away to anywhere and, even if I could, Faery is not a place where either of us belong. I'm Skye, by the way, Skye Benson." She says the last as she holds out her hand to me, still remaining perfectly still, allowing me the chance to decide whether I want to touch her or not.

Taking a deep breath, ready to chalk this one up on my 'stupidest decision ever' list, I take the five steps necessary to bring me directly in front of her and hold out my hand. She takes it without hesitation and squeezes it lightly.

"Sookie Stackhouse." I say, even though I know she already knows my name. "It's a pleasure to meet you." At least I hope it will be, I think to myself. Skye chuckles as she releases my hand.

"Likewise, and I promise, it will be." She says, and I feel myself blushing straight to scarlet as I realize she just read my mind. _"Perhaps for the rest of the afternoon it would be better if we just communicate this way, that way you'll only have to worry about what you're thinking and not what you're saying." _I nod as I hear her in my head, starting to feel a bit of excitement at the prospect of spending the day with someone like me. Skye just smiles reassuringly and leads me out of the library.

For the rest of the afternoon we work on my Fairy gifts, or more specifically we work on getting the ones I already have to answer to me instead of just popping up when I'm emotionally strung out and not really able to control them. It's very, very hard and, even though Skye is a patient, knowledgeable teacher, I'm not sure I make all that much progress.

"You shouldn't feel disappointed in yourself, Sookie." She says aloud for the first time in hours as we sit down to a late picnic lunch together on the lawn behind the castle. "We're both mostly Human and these powers are decidedly not; it takes a great deal of time to be able to control them. You've made a great deal of progress today." I want to believe her but the truth is I'm a little discouraged. I suppose I hoped that, with a little guidance, I would get everything under control in the blink of an eye.

I was able to get my white light to shoot out consistently after the first hour, which is great since it seems like it's been my primary form of defense now for quite a while and it's also the power that I manifested first, but the red stuff would not happen no matter how much I tried. For now, at least, that will probably come and go as it wants. Teleporting, as Skye told me the popping from one place to another was called, is a mixed bag. If I concentrate really, really hard I can do it, although not very far, but it's like tensing a muscle you've almost never used and it feels super weird - it's going to take time to get it to happen instantaneously at will.

"They all seem to do their thing when I stop thinking, but it feels like that only happens when I'm really angry or really scared and I'm afraid that I might accidentally hurt someone without meaning to at some point." I say, taking a sip of warm coffee and thanking the cook yet again.

It's not a particularly warm day out, but Skye thought it would be better to practice out here since Ulrich and Idonea are more likely to overlook it if I mangle a few of their trees instead of, say, a few of their priceless heirlooms. After seeing what I did manage to do, I couldn't agree more.

"You shouldn't be afraid of that part of you, Sookie. You need to listen to it and give it free rein when it wants to come out. You aren't the type of person to enjoy hurting others, I can see that; your Fairy nature is not another personality living within you, it's part of you. It will help you protect yourself if you let it, but I promise, you won't find yourself going on a berserker killing spree just because you can." I smile slightly at that, happy to hear someone else allay that fear.

"If you don't mind me asking, how did you end up working for Vampires?" I say, opening a covered bowl and nearly falling over at the luscious smell of what can only be pumpkin soup. Picking up a spoon, I ladle a little of it and blow before putting it in my mouth.

"I offered my services." She answers me, picking up the other covered bowl. I try really hard not to snort my soup when I hear her answer.

"You volunteered to get involved with Vamps? Why?" I ask, all sense of manners leaving me as my morbid curiosity is peeked. Gran would have my hide, if she were here, for being such a nosey Nelly.

"Protection." Is her simple reply. When my eyebrow goes straight into my hair, Skye gets a dark look on her face. "Idonea told me you spent some time in Faery not very long ago." She pauses, looking for confirmation, and I nod my head slowly.

"Yes, it felt like it was only a few minutes to me, but I was gone for about a year." I answer.

"Not very pleasant place, was it? You escaped, that's a rare thing. This isn't the first time the full Fairies have attempted to…harvest interbred Humans. The last time it happened was about seventy years ago, when I was a little girl. My father was always very protective of my mother and me. He was a wood craftsman and he worked from the garage of our house. I never saw him go anywhere without my mother and I, and I thought that was normal, until the day that I realized it wasn't. The other children my age were going to school, going to each other's houses, playing together at the playground, but I was never allowed to go anywhere without my parents and never allowed to stray far from their sides.

I didn't even know my mother's mother was alive until she came to our house one day when I was about seven. My father was in the garage, but when he realized that she was in the house he came barreling in. I was eating lunch at the kitchen table. It was the most surreal event of my life. There were no words, almost no sounds at all. One moment my mother and I were eating, the next there was a beautiful woman in our kitchen. She grabbed my mother's arm and my mother screamed; she was reaching for me when my father burst through the door with a shotgun in his hand. The woman and my mother disappeared into thin air, just as the woman had come, and I never saw my mother again.

It forced my father to tell me what I was, what my mother was and what was going on in the Faery realm. They're dying out. Mab has decreed that all the part-Fairy Humans should be taken and forced to mate with full Fae in order to produce more and more genetically Fairy off-spring over time. Eventually, they're hoping that they can breed the Humanness right out. Apparently before I was born my Grandmother tried to convince my mother to return with her, but my mother was in love with my father and refused. Between that time and the day in my kitchen, the Fairies had moved from persuasion to out-right kidnapping. Although at this point, I think there are very few like you and me left in the world. They've taken just about everybody."

I didn't even realize that tears were slipping down my cheeks until they hit my hand. The faces of Barry and of all the other people that I saw there, thinking they'd been brought as close as you ever get to heaven and then realizing that it was actually a living hell…I feel so sorry for all of them.

"Do you think they'll come after us again?" I ask her. Skye looks up at the puffy white clouds above our heads for a moment before she answers.

"No, I think you and I are safe. Our association with Vampires makes us so. That's why I chose to work for them. I met one of Idonea's sheriffs in a club in Stockholm two years ago. I found her interesting and exciting after my sheltered life and one thing led to another, I chose to reveal my gifts and my heritage, and I became hers in exchange for protection. I've been living with her and working for her ever since. I don't know the details of how you came to be Sheriff Northman's, but I think it's the best option for those of us that are left. Telepathy would be a sought after gift and you and I could probably make fortunes working for anyone, but nothing keeps a full blooded Fairy away like the threat of a Vampire." Skye chuckles slightly at that and I end up joining her, albeit a little uncomfortably as I remember the untimely demise of my Fairy Godmother.

Claudine wasn't a bad person, even though I didn't know it at the time and didn't do anything to stop Eric from draining her. I regret that I didn't know how good she was until it was too late.

"Do you love your Vampire?" I ask her, without really thinking about it first. Skye just gives me an arched eyebrow.

"Do you love yours?" She counters. I guess I must look as shocked as I feel because she bursts out laughing. "Oh, well I guess that's my answer then. To answer your question, no. Iona is beautiful, fairly old and powerful. She's also fair, for a Vampire. I use my gifts to help her, we enjoy each other's…company when we want and we do what we want the rest of the time, but no one would dare to cross her and so I'm safe from both my Fairy relatives and unwanted Vampire attention. Which leaves me free to give my leisure time to wanted Vampire attention, if you take my meaning." I must be as red as that Granny Smith again because, sure thing, Skye is laughing at me some more. "I take it you and your Vampire have a more…exclusive relationship?"

"He's mine." I answer emphatically, without even thinking. Skye gives me an arched eyebrow again and so I elaborate. "It's a long, windy and entirely drawn out story, but the gist of it is, I had a relationship with another Vampire before Eric. I met Eric while I was with him, we circled around each other for a really long time during which I couldn't figure out if I wanted to jump him or stake him. I put him off again and again and said some stuff I'm not entirely proud of in hindsight. My other relationship fell apart…badly, Eric got into some trouble and ended up staying with me for a little while and being with him non-stop for that time made me realize I'd been wrong. He's the one for me. We've been together ever since. He's mine and I'm his and that's that. The end. And they lived happily, if not quietly, ever after."

I finish my little speech by taking a bite of some fried potatoes and we finish our lunch chit chatting about lots of little inconsequential things. When it starts to get dark, which happens pretty early, it seems, in winter this far north, Skye and I head back in and we're met in the entry hall by Eric and Pam.

Eric smiles at me in a way that's both predatory and adoring all at once, a strange combination that could only work on him and that leaves me feeling hot all over even though we've just walked in from a not insubstantial cold. But before I can rush over to him and give him a huge hug, I notice that Pam and Skye are just sort of staring at each other. I don't know what Skye's normal mode of operation is when meeting a new Vampire, but I know Pam enough by now to know that she'll either flirt if she thinks she's come across a worthy meal or ignore if she thinks the Human is beneath her superior taste and therefore inconsequential (got to love Pam). Right now she's doing neither, she's just starting at Skye with a dreamy expression on her face and Skye is staring back with an almost identical look.

"Pam," I say, trying to get her to refocus and join us back in reality, "this is Skye Benson. Idonea asked her here to spend the day with me." Pam looks at me briefly and then nods, turning her attention back to Skye.

"We've met before." Skye says in an off handed kind of way, as though she's paying only half attention to me. Eric doesn't quite look baffled, so obviously he at least knows part of what's going on here, but he does look annoyed and so, without any more words, he takes me by the hand and starts leading me through the halls.

"What was all that about?" I ask, once we're far enough away from them that I don't think they'll hear. Eric just shrugs his shoulders and sighs.

"_That_ is trouble and you don't want to be anywhere near it, trust me." I give Eric a look that tells him that I'm not going to drop it and he just sighs again. "Pam insisted on coming with me when I was last here…while you were away. She didn't trust me to get here on my own apparently." Eric's face goes a little dark at his memories of that time and I let go of his hand so that I can wrap my arm around his waist and pull him to me, laying a gentle kiss on the side of his chest as I do. That gets me a happy smile. "Pam stayed for two weeks and Ulrich and Idonea had a meeting with their sheriffs during the first week. One of their sheriffs, Iona I think, brought Skye. I'm not sure what you would call Skye exactly: she's an employee, an asset, but girlfriend might be the better moniker, although from what she and Pam spent that week and a half doing…. I take it they're pretty open." Yeah for lesbian weirdness!

"Oh, well, good for Pam I guess. Skye seems…unusual." Eric just laughs at that.

"Indeed. Now can we stop talking about Pam's bizarre love life and start talking about exactly how private a venue you require to allow me to peel you out of all these layers?" Eric stops us in the middle of a giant open hall way, turns so we're facing one another and undoes the zipper to my coat before I even see what he's doing. I gasp a little, laughing as I do, and pull away.

"Much, much more private than this." I answer him, swatting away his hand as it comes at me, at Human speed, making for the zipper to my jeans. Eric's put upon sigh is back, but I know it's all in good humor this time. Giving him my best 'poor baby' face, I put my hands on his shoulders and reach up on my tiptoes as I put pressure on him to bend and bring his mouth down for a long, slow kiss.

Eric's wraps his arms around me and my hands go from his shoulders to his hair as we just stand there for a little while and enjoy each other. When his tongue asks entry, I part my lips willingly and caress his with my own before chasing it back into his mouth. I let my tongue sweep across the roof of his mouth before brushing it against his top teeth, pulling back when I realize that his fangs have grown again. I look up at him and see him smile again. Now that we're facing each other I can see that they look almost completely restored.

"Are they healed?" I ask, reaching up just like I did last night to touch them. Eric smiles wider, letting me play with them a little.

"Not completely - they aren't long enough to retract yet," Eric does it just to show me and, when he pulls them back into his gums, nothing is left but the two little points that were there last night, "but they will be by tomorrow night or the night after, I think." With that he lets them down again and they fill the empty spaces as though they were a set of normal teeth.

They're not perfect yet, but I'm overjoyed that I had a part in helping them heal anyway, because even if they're not 'bite me' ready yet, there are no more empty spaces in Eric's mouth and I can feel how much happier he is now that they're back.

"So what now?" I ask as we start walking again. Eric puts his arm around my shoulders and pulls me close to him, shortening his huge strides so that I can walk comfortably beside him.

"First we meet everyone in the library, make our final plans and say our final goodbyes, then we leave for the airport and, once we're on the plane, I get to have my way with you again while you protest loudly, decrying my ungentlemanly treatment of you." That gets a snort from me.

"Would you like your protestations mild, medium or strong?" I ask, getting a genuine belly laugh out of him. Eric turns to me, quirking his eyebrow, before bending to bury his head in my hair, sniffing me a little and coming away with a blissed out expression on his face.

"Surprise me with your ingenuity, lover. The louder you protest the harder I'll make you come!"

Boarding passes please.


	16. Chapter 16

_**A/N:**__ Happy New Year! I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in so long, like most everyone else December kind of got away from me. We were sick and then we were sucked into the Holidays, so I can only apologize. It won't happen again!_

_Here's a longish chapter to get back into things. It's the last even remotely quiet chapter probably until the end (which looks like it's finally in sight!). From here on in there'll be a bunch of action and ass kicking! I hope you enjoy!_

_**Disclaimer:**__ I don't own them and if public opinion is any indicator Mr. Ball's days as a free man will soon be over. Mr. Ball's police escort had to be doubled this morning as he entered the courtroom for the last day of testimony because picketers outside, chanting 'Foul Ball', attempted on several occasions to stake him with the sharpened end of their sign posts. _

If I were to sit and actually attempt to define my ability, the title 'telepath' wouldn't be one hundred percent accurate. I can read the thoughts of Humans perfectly and I can also sense their feelings; from Weres and Shifters, what I usually get is more of an impression of their emotional state and, every once in a while, a stray thought or two. So in essence, I'm a Telepath optimally and an Empath minimally.

Even with Eric's many doses of super-duper, older than dirt Vampire blood, I still get nothing from Vampires, but as we walk into a large stone chamber that looks like an armory, I would say that any even half aware person wouldn't need a single extra sense or ability to gauge the emotional state of the eighty odd Vampires I see in the room.

Vampires have the ability to be fearsome and awe-inspiring at any time, but put a bunch of them, spoiling for a fight and barely restraining their bloodlust, in the same room and what you get is a sense of barely repressed violence that almost feels as if it's detectable in the air.

Eric's arm around me tightens a little bit more and I feel him re-arrange us so that I'm a little bit more behind him than next to him, just in case, as we approach Ulrich and Idonea at the head of the group.

"Eric, good, I think we're all ready here." Ulrich says, running a soft cloth across a sword that's almost as long as he is tall. Eric just smiles at him and nods. Beside Ulrich I see Idonea huff just a little bit and roll her eyes.

"Sookie, did you find Ms. Benson's assistance helpful today?" Idonea asks, stepping away from her husband. She walks over to me, entwining her arm with mine, and leads us to the farthest side of the room while Ulrich, Eric and Sigmund talk amongst themselves.

"I did, your Majesty, thank you. I didn't make as much progress as I would have liked to, but Skye assured me that it will come with time and practice. Is the King coming with us?" I end up asking, my curiosity getting the better of my manners. Idonea makes a face that starts off sour but eventually turns indulgent.

"He is." She sighs dejectedly. "Ulrich couldn't resist and, truthfully, it's his turn. I'm trying to be gracious about it, but I hate staying behind to…babysit the throne, so to speak." I can't help laughing a little and I'm shocked, but in a good way, when Idonea joins me. "Such are the compromises of marriage." She ends jokingly.

When we stop giggling, Idonea looks at me for a long moment, her expression turning appraising. It makes me uncomfortable and I know that I'm fighting a deep blush when her face finally softens.

"Pamela tells me that you were worried about what Ulrich and I would think of you. She tried to explain the reason, something about being accepted by Eric's 'grandparents', but I find myself still puzzled. We are not really his grandparents. You understand this, yes?" Okay, I don't need to a mirror to know that I've lost 'the battle of the blush' and I find, for a solid minute or two, that I can't bring myself to do much more than just gape at her. Knowing that I have to answer, I open my mouth and just pray to God and sweet baby Jesus and all the angels that what comes out isn't stupid. I really need not to be 'airhead' Sookie right now.

"I do know that, Ma'am, I do. I know that Human labels don't really work very well with Vampires, but y'all are very important to him and that means that your opinions are very important to me too. I don't know quite what it is that I'm trying to say here, but I want you to know that I love him very much, with my whole heart, and I'm committed to him." Idonea laughs a little at that, but it's not a nasty laugh or a mocking one. I'm actually a little surprised when her cool hand comes out and pats my arm gently.

"I'm very happy to know that your intentions towards my 'grandson' are honorable." She says, the mirth still twinkling in her eyes. "Truthfully, Sookie," she says, once she's sobered again, "you have nothing to fear from either Ulrich or myself. Eric is equally as important to us and, even though our relationship with him is not one in which he requires our approval of his decisions or his life, if it were, I would happily give you my blessing." I feel like a huge weight comes off of my shoulders at that, but it appears I'm not totally off the hook yet. "If I might though, I'd like to ask you a question."

"Yes, Ma'am. I'll answer you if I possibly can." Idonea smiles at that and nods her head sagely.

"Thank you. My question is simply, what have you decided about your future? Do you intend to be turned?" Yep, Human labels definitely don't work really well with Vampires. I don't think I know too many Human grandmothers who would lead with "do you intend to let my grandson kill you?"

"Truthfully Ma'am, I hadn't given it any thought. I was told that, because of my heritage and the strength of Eric's blood, our bond meant that I would live a very long time." Shrugging my shoulders, I try to evade her question with a little of my own humor. "To be honest I think Eric might just be sick of me in a couple of hundred years, don't you?" I try to laugh at my joke but it falls flat when I see Idonea's expression. Her frown is thoughtful at best.

"No," is her simple and blunt answer. "If you were anyone else I would never even think of asking you this question, but I have never seen Eric as I saw him when you were gone. In so many ways he is like Ulrich, strong, hard, emotionally stunted, not a man to become attached to anything. But you, you had made him yours before you were ever his and, even though you had not yet coupled, he suffered greatly while you were gone. He felt more grief at your disappearance than most men would feel at the death of a wife. I do not see such feelings lessening over the decades you will share together.

I meant what I said, Sookie. Eric does not require my approval to lead his life, and by extension neither do you. Even if you told me now that you would not even think of the question I have put before you, I would not attempt to stand in the way of your being with him. But I see your love for him as clearly as I see his for you and so I am asking you to at least consider what I have said.

Eric is brave and strong, but we all of us have our breaking point and I believe that losing you again would break him irrevocably." I don't have the words to answer Idonea.

I don't even think that I can process everything she's just dropped into my lap right now, not on top of all the other craziness that's surrounding us. Luckily, I don't get the chance to try though. At that moment the doors to the armory open again and Pam and Skye enter, both of their clothes rumpled and wearing identical dreamy smiles on their faces, although Pam's has a great deal more tooth to it.

"Ms. Benson, Sookie tells me that you were most helpful to her today. Thank you." Idonea says, turning her attention to Skye. Skye makes a small curtsey and I see a sly smile painting her face.

"Sookie has a great deal of talent, your Majesty. She will be very powerful when she learns to control her gifts." Looking from Idonea to Pam and then back at Idonea, Skye gets a hopeful expression on her face. "I greatly enjoyed our time together today and I hoped that I might go with her. I think that I can be of more help." Idonea's gets a knowing smile on her face at that and looks down at me.

"It appears my services as chief meddler in the love lives of others is not yet over for the night." Looking back at Skye and Pam, Idonea nods her head magnanimously, although the regalness of the gesture is somewhat ruined by the mirth in her eyes.

"If you go, I will expect you to continue helping Sookie with her gifts and also to make sure that she is well protected during the day, this must be your first priority." Skye nods her head respectfully at that. "Good, I will inform Iona that you are leaving with Ulrich at my request."

"Thank you, Highness." Skye says, a bright, slightly bashful smile painting her face. Just then Eric and Ulrich come up to us, identical looks of bloody excitement painting their faces.

"We're ready." Ulrich says, his fangs fully extended.

Eric comes up and puts his arm back around me and our bond is pretty much bursting with exhilaration. Since I know he's not happy about the position we've been put in, I can only assume that it must be the prospect of fighting beside Ulrich once more that has him so giddy. Idonea gives her husband a long, fangy and slightly audience inappropriate kiss goodbye and then turns and kisses Pam and Eric as well, bidding them all a good fight and then we're heading out to the courtyard and piling back into the cars.

Ulrich, Pam, Skye and Sigmund join us in the first car and the others pile into a veritable fleet of big black SUV's behind us and then we're again making the several hours trip back to Stockholm. The ride is filled with as much excited conversation as I've ever seen from a bunch of Vampires. Usually they're a people of few words, but it seems like the possibility of a big, bloody fight, even one we've pretty much been blackmailed into, is cause for giddiness all around.

There's talk about what to expect when we get to Switzerland, when the big battle will go down and who they might get to take out. I'm not usually a shrinking violet but sitting in a car with five Vampires, four of which have their fangs extended and veritably dripping with saliva, has me clinging a little closer to Eric than usual.

I pretty much know now that Bill's warning after our first encounter with Russell, that Vampires would lose control around me and just drain me dry, was nothing more than a scare tactic to keep me at his side, but to be honest it's a fear, however unfounded, that hit the mark and hasn't ever really left me since. Eric just laughs softly when he feels my apprehension and squeezes my hand, sending me reassurance across the bond.

"Don't worry Lover." He says, laying a shiver inducing kiss on the shell of my ear, as he whispers in it. His strategy is successful as I stop worrying about a group of bloodlust crazed Vampires sucking me dry and start thinking about his promise to treat me all sorts of ungentlemanly on the plane.

Knowing Eric's got me, I end up letting the motion of the car lull me into a light nap against his shoulder. When I wake up next we're at the airport, once again bypassing the normal passenger departure areas and heading towards the private planes.

We stop just inside a large hangar where a huge Airbus jet is waiting for us. The Vampires pile out of the cars and onto the plane with quiet efficiency and soon Eric is leading me through the larger section where Ulrich's Vampires are getting comfortable and heading to what would have been the first class cabin if this were a normal commercial flight.

Jan, Ulrich's pilot, greets us again, bowing to Ulrich and letting him know that they're all set to go and then we're in the air. Once we're at cruising altitude a stewardess comes out and brings the Vamps blood and me champagne.

I barely have the glass on the little coffee table in front of my arm chair when Eric is unbuckling my seatbelt and hauling me farther up the plane. Once we're out of sight of the other Vampires, Eric presses me up against a wall, his mouth descending on mine harshly, his tongue forcing its way into my mouth. I barely notice that the moan of pleasure that bubbles up is mine before his hands are roaming over my body, sneaking under my sweater and pulling down the cups of my bra.

"I do not enjoy waking without you!" He growls into my mouth as his hands tweak my nipples sharply.

I feel powerless to do much more than run my own hands over his fabulously too tight jeans, squeezing his butt hard, to tell him that I agree. But some nearly forgotten sense of propriety pulls me back to reality when I feel one of his hands leave my breasts and sink itself into the waistband of my pants, trying to get to my lady parts.

We're in the hall, the first class cabin less than two feet from us and the kitchen right beside us, and I'm not letting that Stewardess see any part of Eric's fabulous body after the way she was thinking about him while she served my champagne, even if she's only seeing it while he's thrusting into me. He's mine now and all of his amazing body parts are for my eyes only.

"Eric, not here." I say breathily, pushing at his chest, even if I'll admit the attempt is half-hearted. My brain might want modesty but my body is saying "fuck it, let's fuck, RIGHT NOW!" I hate not being with him when he wakes and having to wait to have him just as much.

Eric looks down at me with a sly smile and takes my hand, pulling me again farther up the plane. We reach the private bathroom at the front in seconds and Eric reaches out to take the handle only to find that it's locked.

I can see the intense and immediate annoyance written all over his face, just as clearly as I can feel his intention to simply break the door down and throw out whoever is in there, even if it means tossing the co-pilot into the hall with his pants around his ankles, when all of the sudden there's a loud moaning sound from inside the bathroom followed by a breathy cry of pleasure.

"Pam!" the already familiar voice of Skye yells out, clearly in orgasm.

I don't know whether to laugh or to cry at that. I know I'm blushing bright red again though.

"Looks like Pam beat us to it." I whisper, unable to keep from chuckling. It's not funny really, but poor Eric's expression is. He looks like he's about to either burst from anger or from sexual frustration. If I could see his balls right now I bet they'd be bright blue. Eric reaches for the door knob again and I realize that his original intention stands, but I manage to catch his hand just before he yanks the knob right out with its screws.

"Let them be, Eric." I plead with him, not so much because I'm happy about the situation but more because I'd be mortified to throw Pam and Skye out of the bathroom while they're having sex, just so we can have sex. It would be horribly embarrassing and Pam would never forgive me. It's only fair, I suppose: the early bird gets the orgasm and all.

"I will have Pam scrub that entire bathroom from top to bottom using her new Burberry skirt suit as a cleaning rag!" Eric grumbles, just under his breath, as he leads us back towards the cabin.

"Oh honey, just hang in there, we'll be landing soon." I say, perversely amused by the visual he's just planted in my head. It's not as good as having sex (not by a long shot) but it will tide me over till we get where we're going.

"I suppose there's absolutely no way I can convince you to come with me to the back of the plane?" He asks, crestfallen, already knowing my answer.

"With all of Ulrich's guys listening in? Yeah, not likely Cowboy." I say, trying really hard to sound convincing. Again, my head is appalled but by body is hopping up and down, calling me an idiot and begging me to seriously reconsider this whole modesty thing. The cost is severely outweighing the benefit here.

Luckily the flight from Stockholm to Basel is much shorter than the flight from New York to Stockholm, but when we get off the plane again, in another private hangar, I find out that we still have another three hour drive to Bettmeralp.

Trying to stifle the ungrateful groan that's wanting to come out of my mouth, I notice that there are again a large number of cars waiting for us, but this time they're not the top of the line Mercedes that Ulrich had for us or even the fancy BMWs that Ilina and Sigmund were tooling around in the States. They're big, stripped down, military looking Jeeps. Sensing my surprise Eric bends down and whispers in my ear.

"Bettmeralp is in the mountains at the base of a large glacier. We're going to be driving on some pretty small, steep roads and we'll be needing real all-terrain vehicles to make it up there safely." Oh goody, I think sarcastically, and Eric must feel the accompanying trepidation because he runs his hands soothingly up and down my back.

I'd always wanted to travel, but I'm seriously feeling like this trip has dampened that desire somewhat. We've spent so much time in one mode of transportation or another at this point that I'm beginning to feel like my muscles might atrophy if I have to do much more sitting.

At first I'm kind of bummed that we're traveling during the night, if only because I can just make out the outlines of the most amazingly huge and beautiful, snow covered mountains in the distance, but once we start traveling upwards and the roads start getting more windy and much, much narrower I start to feel happy that I can't really see what's outside the Jeep.

When we reach a point where the twisty road we're driving on appears to turn dirt and becomes barely bigger than the Jeep, Eric takes my hand reassuringly and sends me calm through our bond.

"We're nearly there, love. Just a few more kilometers." He says reassuringly, and I try to breathe again. If Eric were a Human, I probably would have cut off circulation to his hand when Sigmund tells us it's just another kilometer and a half (however much that actually is) and the Jeep basically becomes vertical, the incline we're driving at is so steep. I'm suddenly intensely grateful for our ugly, uncomfortable, all-terrain vehicle.

After ten more nausea inducing minutes that will probably ruin my blood pressure forever and take at least ten years off my life, we come into the small village of Bettmeralp. Even in the dead of night, it's beautiful and unlike anything I've ever seen before. Instead of building in blocks like people do in cities, the houses, which Eric tells me are indicative of Switzerland, literally dot the mountain side, sloping with the grade of the ground instead of being level.

There are few lights in the windows at this time of night but at the end of another long, narrow road we come to a large house, built entirely of wood, its rear, again, built into the side of the mountain.

Sigmund uses an automatic garage door opener to open a door that literally goes into the mountain and we drive into a hidden garage, much larger and more modern looking than the house would lead you to believe. In true James Bond form, It turns out the house is much more of a façade than a functional home and the actual structure is built into the rock, huge, sturdy and completely light tight.

It's nearly four a.m. when we arrive and, after a brief and awkward greeting between Ilina, Sigmund, Ulrich and Eric, Ilina tells Ulrich that everyone else joining in this fight is here already and that they will all sit down to go over the final plans for the attack at first dark. Then Ilina tells Skye and me that she will arrange for breakfast for us later on in the morning and that we're free to roam about the town until dark.

Then we're all led to our temporary quarters to retire for the day. Ulrich, Pam and Skye, Eric and I, are all housed in the same long hallway in three large rooms. We all say a hasty goodnight, before Eric all but drags me into our room.

The room is just as lovely as everything else here, with wood paneling covering the bare rock that must be beneath and a plush red carpet covering the floor. Other than that, there is a only a large four poster bed and two night tables, one with a lamp and the other with a small digital clock and a large armoire. Before I can even drop my suitcase, Eric has me in his grip, walking me backwards to the bed, our clothes seeming to vanish as we go.

"I'm starving, lover." He says, his voice a full octave lower than usual as I feel the backs of my knees hit the edge of the bed. No sooner does he have me there than he gives me a push and I fall back onto the soft linens.

What little of our clothes were still on are ripped off as Eric climbs on top of me, completely caging me under him, and lowers his face to my breasts. His mouth is urgent on my skin, licking, sucking and nipping at a frenzied pace as I wrap my arms around his back and try to simply hang on for the ride.

"What is all this?" I ask between moans as his mouth continues to ravage my tits and his hands begin to roughly palm my butt and hips, eventually pulling my legs wide apart so that he can grind his rock hard erection against my quickly dampening slit. "This is more than just being hungry." I prompt him, after a moment in which he refuses to lift his mouth from my skin to answer.

Instead of answering me, Eric throws our bond wide, wide open and suddenly I can feel everything he's feeling as though his emotions were my own. He's hungry, very hungry, but he's also desperately excited about the fight to come and the chance to hack his enemies into tiny pieces. At this moment the Vampire in him and the Viking in him are in perfect harmony and he wants to fuck his woman long and hard before going into battle and cutting down his enemies in spurts of blood and viscera.

I may not be a Vampire or a Viking but, as he lowers his head farther down my body, his brand new fangs grazing along my skin and his hands forcefully holding my legs open, I couldn't agree with the plan more (at least this part of it).

Giving myself over to his lust, feeling it mix with my own, I lay there, half dazed, and let him have his way with me, licking, sucking, and biting every inch of me with crazed abandon until I come hard, screaming his name and nearly ripping out his hair from the intensity of the pleasure he's bringing me.

Eric barely gives me a moment to recover before I feel him push into me so hard that I almost feel like I could split in half. I cry out his name again as he begins to ride me fast and wild, driving me into the soft bedding with frenzy and obliterating any worry or care beyond reaching the next blissful peak.

"So good. So good lover. Never felt anything as perfect as your body!" He whispers harshly in my ear just as I come again. This time Eric lets go, joining me and coming with a roar that echoes loudly off the paneled walls.

But where any normal man, and even some Vampires from my experience, would have been spent after such a crazed coupling, Eric is already hard again when my breathing returns to something like normal and, before I can say anything, his eyes catch mine, a desperation I've never seen before painting them.

Our bond, still open to its fullest, tells me that he wants something from me…badly, something that he's afraid to ask for, something he thinks I won't give him. Reaching my hand up, I caress his cheek in the first gentle gesture we've shared since closing the door behind us. Filling my side of our bond with as much love and acceptance as I have in me, I brush his lips with my own.

"Tell me. Tell me what you want, Eric, and I'll give it to you. I love you. I want to make you happy. I want to make you so happy that you'll never ever grow bored with me or wish that you were free to be with anyone else." Eric looks at me with a suddenly hurt and questioning gaze.

"Do you honestly think that I will ever grow tired of you?" He asks, his disbelief evident in his voice.

I don't know why I said that. It just slipped out and I feel immediately bad for betraying this niggling little insecurity that's been gnawing at the back of my brain for the past weeks, but I just can't help it. It's been there all along and Idonea's plea for to me to think about what I want, not just for my future but for Eric's, has brought it back to the forefront in full force.

"Eric, you've done…everything in your thousand years, I'm sure, and I know practically nothing. I know that you love me, but I worry that…that I'm not enough, that I don't know enough to keep you interested. Do you really think sex with me will be all that exciting in a few centuries?" There, I said it, it's out there, it doesn't have to claw at the edges of my consciousness anymore.

Eric's first response is to lower his body completely against mine, pressing every inch of his skin and his weight against me. Then he lowers his head and takes my mouth in a kiss that's somehow both reverent and worshipful, while being ravenous and devouring too. When he finally pulls away to let me breathe, his eyes capture mine with one of the drilling stares that seem to see right into me.

"If I had ten thousand years with you it wouldn't be enough, Sookie. I have, as you say, done everything in my lifetime, several times over actually, and none of it, nothing that I have ever experienced with anyone else, has made me feel even a fraction of what I feel when you do nothing more than smile at me.

Listen to me well, Sookie. I love you. I love everything about you, from your reckless stubbornness to your enchanting innocence, and everything in between. But while I love you for your mind and your bright, shining soul, you need to understand right now that what I feel for you is very, very deeply physical." Eric leans down and runs his tongue methodically over my parted lips.

"From the moment I saw you, I wanted you with a desperation I have never felt for anything or anyone, and now that I have you… I could taste your lips, and nothing more, for decades." He lowers his head farther and places a sucking nip to my left breast, right over my heart. "I could feast on your perfect tits for centuries." His hands, which have been resting by my head, begin to swipe in strong, hard motions down my sides. "I could drown in the satiny feel of your skin for a millennium." Those same hands finish their motions over my body by coming to rest between my legs, petting my still wet folds and playing with my clit and my entrance. "And I know no measure of time that would allow me to have my fill of your perfect, soft, slick pussy. Do you not feel my love for you, my passion? Sometimes it's so overwhelming, so all consuming that I worry I will drown in you and never find myself again. How can you doubt me?" His last words are said with such heartbreaking sincerity that I can only wrap my arms around him, pulling him impossibly closer.

"Oh, Eric… I don't… I don't doubt you. I love you so, so much and I know you love me. I'm sorry, I'm just..." I don't know how to finish that sentence really. I don't know how to put into words the fear and the insecurity that fill me at the thought of losing him. I can't imagine that anyone else, not even Eric, can understand how afraid it makes me. If I let it, it might eat me from the inside.

The whole time I've been thinking my eyes have been closed, not wanting to see how he'll react to what he must be feeling from me and so I'm startled when I feel Eric kiss my closed lids, laying butterfly caresses over my nose and cheeks, before taking my mouth once more.

"Look at me, lover." He whispers. I open my eyes and find him staring at me again, into my soul. "Everything that you feel, everything that you fear, I fear it too. I swore I would never, ever let you go, though, and I won't. You must believe me. You must trust what's between us." I know he's right and I nod my head as I try to hold back the tears wanting to slip from my eyes.

"Tell me what you want. Let me show you how much I trust what's between us." I implore him, starting to lay kisses across his face. Eric's answer is to slip the hand still between my legs farther down, until it comes to rest against my other entrance. I look up at him then, shocked but not unwilling.

It's something I've never done before, certainly not with my only other lover. It's something that I never even considered, but suddenly I want it. I want it with him. "Yes." I whisper, as my mouth trails down the column of his throat. "Yes."

Eric brings one hand to my face then, cupping my cheek and taking my mouth in a rough kiss so filled with joy and need that his emotions nearly drown me. From my mouth he trails heated kisses all over my body once more as his other hand starts to play between my legs again. His fingers thrust into my pussy and make me wet again, then pull out and smooth my desire lower, coating me in my own need.

When he has me panting with need and anticipation, he lifts up off my body slightly and I feel him thrust his hardness gently into me a few times, until we're both dripping in me and then he pulls out. Slowly, so that I feel everything before he does it, he positions himself at my other entrance, his head pushing carefully inside.

I gasp with the first feel of him there and panic almost overtakes me. He's big, he's so big, he's too big to fit. I find myself chanting it in my head as my hands come up to grab at his shoulders. Eric leans down once more and kisses me sweetly.

"I won't hurt you, love, I promise. I only want to please you too." He says, the hand between us coming to play with my clit, pushing my desire higher, changing where I'm concentrating. As he does he pushes his desire, his love and his overwhelming ecstasy at the feel of me through the bond. It takes me over and in an instant I go from panicking to writhing.

The feel of what he's doing changes from intense pressure to unbelievable pleasure in an instant. In that moment I feel him push just a little more and suddenly he's completely buried in me. I look up at him in wonder at the foreign sensations that are filling my body and see him smile, his face painted with his pleasure and pride in me.

"Everything," He says, his voice filled with awe, "everything is new with you, more intense, more wonderful, more real." He breathes as he starts to thrust slowly in and out. The only response I'm capable of is a moan of deep pleasure as I let my hands leave his shoulders and wrap around his neck. I push my need for more through our bond since my voice no longer works and cry out in ecstasy as he begins to move in steady, sure strokes.

It takes barely any time at all before I feel my orgasm coming over me, so different from any other one I've ever experienced, so much more raw, so much more powerful. Eric must feel it too because, at that exact moment, he leans down and cuts deeply into the skin on my shoulder, slicing a red line that wells with my blood, and leans down to suck ravenously at it. I barely have time to notice my own scream of pleasure before the world goes black.

When I come to again, my vision is hazy and indistinct. Eric has repositioned us so that we're lying on the pillows, the blankets tucked around us, and is cradling me close, his chin resting on the top of my head, one leg thrown possessively over my own.

"Are you alright?" He asks softly, his arms tightening around me. I hold him just as close, nuzzling my face into the place where his neck and shoulders meet, letting my lips trace the line of his collarbone.

"Yeah, I'm alright. I'm so alright I might just slide off the bed and make a Sookie sized puddle on the floor." I answer, smiling stupidly, still drugged on the endorphins racing around in my body. Eric laughs softly.

"Good, because I've found something else that no measure of time will ever dull." He says, kissing my hair gently before letting the dawn take him. I hold him close, feeling the life leave him for another day and, when he's totally gone, his existence just a gentle buzz in his own little corner of my heart, I let my tears fall unchecked.

I love him so much. I never thought I could feel this for anyone. He said he would never let anything part us, and I won't either. I will find a way to make myself and my gifts as strong as they can be, so that nothing and no one will ever dare to try to take him from me.


	17. Chapter 17

_**A/N:**__ Yeah, a timely update! Some people have been wondering when stuff was gonna finally start happening again and I'm hoping this will satisfy the craving for some action. The ball gets rolling this chapter, but the big battle is coming down the line either next chapter (ideally) or the one afterwards (sometimes when I sit to write it doesn't take nearly as long as I thought to get to the object of the chapter and sometimes it takes way longer than it should). I think we have only about 3 more chapters left in the story (maybe as much as 5 if I get wordy again) but we're definitely in the home stretch now._

_Oh I forgot to mention last chapter that Bettmeralp is one of the beautiful places that I spent my 'internet forcibly unplugged' vacation late last year. It was so awesome that I had to get Sookie and Eric there, so I'm trying to describe some of it's UNBELIVABLE beauty in this chapter and the last, maybe not succeeding to well, but really it has to be seen to be believed. The glacier I keep mentioning is the Altesch Glacier and it is just awesome, you're not actually allowed to walk out on it, but you can go to a little rocky out cropping (if you take a seriously rickety and scary ski lift ride) and look out at it. It really looks like diamonds in the sunshine._

_So, now that I rambled, let me wrap up by thanking my awesome beta Sheknitsnicely and everyone who's been reading, reviewing, altering and favoriting. Thank you, thank you, thank you!_

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own them and Alan Ball, luckily, cannot be fuckering season 5 at the moment because, after an escape attempt from his prison cell in the dead of night, he's currently in solitary confinement while the jury deliberates over the case! _

"Again!" Skye yells at me, barely giving me time to catch my breath as she comes barreling towards me, her hands lighting up as she gets ready to fire.

She's too close, I won't be able to run from her and I certainly won't be able to shoot her before she shoots me. I try with all my might to make my body 'pop' to safety but, just like the last ten times we tried this, it doesn't work and instead I'm thrown several feet backwards as her light hits me square in the chest.

"Fuck!" I scream in pain as my chest explodes in agony and my butt all but breaks in half as it hits the ice.

We've been practicing since mid-morning, Skye having popped us up to the actual frozen top of the Glacier that Eric had mentioned the night before. It's so beautiful up here that there aren't words to describe it. The day is sunny and unusually warm and the ice beneath us is glimmering like a zillion tiny diamonds under our feet. We're surrounded on every side by enormous, stark, bald, snow covered mountains and the air smells so clean and pure that just breathing feels like a new, special experience. And if Skye would stop kicking my ass for even ten minutes put together I would take some pictures to remember this amazing sight by, but clearly the only mementoes I'll be walking away with today are bright blue bruises.

"I don't understand," I begin as Skye holds out her hand to help me pick myself up off the ice…again, "I know it's gonna hurt when you hit me, but I can't make myself do what I need to do. Every time I've been threatened before it's always worked. Why not now?" Every muscle in my body groans in protest as I get back to my feet, admittedly letting Skye do most of the work when it comes to getting me vertical again.

She looks me over critically, making sure that I'm not damaged too badly, and then she shrugs her shoulders.

"You know that I'm not going to kill you." Is her simple answer. When she sees my exasperated, disbelieving look she continues. "It's true. It's not just that you were threatened before, Sookie, you, or someone you loved, was in actual mortal danger.

You said it yourself, every time your Fairy powers have come to your aid you've been in grave danger and you simply 'turned off' and let your powers take over. Even if what I do hurts, you already know I won't truly harm you and so, instead of letting yourself go, you're trying to exert more control. You're trying to force it. You're trying to_ make_ happen something that should flow without the necessity of thought." I nod my head, knowing she's right, but not knowing how to fix the problem.

"So what do I do?" I counter. Skye looks up at the puffy white clouds for a few moments and I can hear her running through possible answers in her head. I try not to get pissy when I hear the words 'stubborn' and 'too pigheaded for her own good' running through her mind.

"Well, normally I'd spout a lot of Star Warsy, Jedi sounding bullshit about controlling your emotions and all that, but clearly control is the problem here and not the solution. So I guess I'm going to tell you to give in to the dark side my young apprentice." Skye chuckles with mock evilness and I try hard not to laugh.

I'm not a Star Wars fan in the least, but wouldn't you know it, my stoic, hardened, thousand year old Viking boyfriend is (although he thinks the Jedi are total pansies and that turning into Darth Vader was the smartest thing Anakin ever did - he refuses to admit that he might've, just maybe, entirely missed the moral of the story) so I've seen all seven of them (yes seven not six, there's an animated movie too and a TV show, but that's beside the point!) in the last couple of weeks and I kind of get what she's talking about.

"Okay, so _how _do I do that?" I ask again. Skye nods her head sagely and gets behind me.

"Close your eyes and breathe deeply until you feel calm, until you don't feel the cold, until you don't feel your aches and pains. Just breathe and concentrate on emptying your mind." I do as she asks and we stand there for a good five minutes while I attempt to let it all go. "Tell me about a time when your gifts came to you without trying?" She asks, her voice barely a whisper in my ear.

"Eric was tricked by Bill, my ex, and a witch named Antonia into allowing himself to be chained to a stake and burned. He was going to give his life to save me. I watched him burning." I tell her.

"Good, and you used your powers to save him?" She asks. I nod my head just a fraction, trying to concentrate on my breath. "What did it feel like? What did it feel like to watch the man you love dying in agony before your very eyes?" I open my mouth to answer her but she cuts me off. "Don't tell me, feel it! Feel it again. Feel the pain and the anguish and the rage that consumed you." Closing my mouth, I try to visualize that night again.

I remember my helplessness, the awful knowledge that my body was no longer under my control, that Antonia would use me as the weapon that ended Eric's life. That she was doing it just to spite me, to hurt me because I wouldn't help her hurt others. I'd only had him for a few days, he'd only just remembered himself and we'd only just realized that what we felt for each other was real and true and stronger than anything any two people had a right to feel and he was going to truly and finally die right in front of me, screaming in torment as his flesh melted from his body.

I would never touch him again. I would never feel the soft strands of his hair running through my fingers, never hear the sound of his laughter, loud and strong, warming me from the inside: I would never feel his body slide against mine, never feel his lips sear my skin, I'd never even get the chance to say one final 'I love you'.

I feel my anger rise up and wash over me like a molten lava flow. I feel the fury that had consumed me that night well up, as though it's all happening again and, suddenly, my whole body is lit from within by a terrible wrath.

"Hold on to your anger." Skye says softly in my ear before I vaguely hear the sound of her popping away from her place behind me. "Open your eyes!" She orders me, her voice echoing to me from a great distance. My eyes fly open at the sound of her command and I see her out of the corner of my eye, off to my right. "Again!" She yells, and starts to barrel towards me.

This time I don't think about how much it's gonna hurt if she hits me. I don't think about how my poor, abused backside can't take another dumping onto the ice, all I think about is Eric.

I think about my promise to myself last night just before I fell off to sleep. I think of his naked body, warmed from our passionate lovemaking and curled protectively around me, fearsome and strong and ancient but completely vulnerable in his daytime rest, and I think about what I would do if someone got to him, if someone hurt him, if someone finally succeeded in taking him, torturing him, killing him. ERIC IS MINE! No one has the right to take him from me! I will NOT allow it!

Without any real thought on my part I let Skye get closer to me, her hands flaring with her light once more and, just as she lets off her first shot, I think about being behind her. My stomach falls into my feet, my ears clog and then, just as I'd imagined it, it happens. I rematerialize behind her. Before she has a chance to turn and react to my new position I throw my hands up and blast her from behind. My light detonates across her backside and I watch as she's thrown ten feet away, only to land on the ice on her stomach.

Suddenly it as if I'm back in my right mind again and I realize that I did it! I popped _and _fired off my light without even trying. I'm all set to do a happy dance when I hear Skye groan in pain. Running over to her, I kneel down and put my hand on her back.

"Oh my God! Are you alright? I'm so sorry…I..." Skye looks up at me from her still prone position on the ice and just starts to laugh, albeit a little rustily.

"Don't apologize Sookie, that's what's _supposed_ to happen!" She says, smiling wide at me. I feel myself blush straight to scarlet, and I still feel terrible that I face planted her onto the ice, but I also can't help the feeling of pride cropping up on me.

Skye gets gingerly back to her feet and then we start all over again. We practice for another few hours. Each time Skye gives me a little less time to center myself and get my 'sith' on before coming at me. Eventually she quits pausing at all and we end up playing a pitched, not so mock, battle all over the glacier. I still get my butt, and my face, dumped onto the ice a few more times, but by the time the sun starts to set I'm giving as good as I get without needing 'breathing' time first.

~*S*~

The sun is just setting when Skye and I pop back into Bettmeralp, just at the base of the ski lift that takes people up the 'normal' way to the glacier. We're both covered in blacks and blues and limping slightly as we walk back through the village but, despite the physical pain, I feel pretty darn happy. I actually did good today and I can't wait to tell Eric everything.

When we reach the house Skye and I walk through, back to our rooms, and part ways with knowing smiles on our faces. We'll all be meeting for the big pow wow in about an hour, but our Vamps should be up in just a matter of minutes.

Walking through the door, I relock it behind me and make to turn around when two big, strong arms capture me from behind and pull me into a fierce hug. Normally I would be ecstatic to be greeted this way but after the work out that I had today, the only thing out of my mouth is a yelp of complete and total pain.

Almost before it comes out of my mouth, and no doubt feeling the echo of the pain that caused it, the arms that had me caged only moments before drop as though I've burned them and instead grab hold of my shoulders. With a great deal more caution and gentleness they turn me around to meet the extremely worried face of their owner.

Eric's eyes drill holes through my head and I feel him in our bond pushing his way into my consciousness, trying to ascertain how badly I'm hurt and where. I try to respond in kind, sending him calm and reassurance, but if he feels it, it doesn't show.

"Sookie, you're hurt." He says, his voice equal parts anxiety and fury. I shake my head, trying to convey that I'm just fine, but before I can tell him how I got hurt, Eric's hands are all over me.

"Yes, you are." He insists. "I can feel it!"

Not giving me the chance to explain, his wandering hands start to move with purpose, stripping me of my clothes, with a dogged single-mindedness, until I'm standing in front of him naked as the day I was born.

"Mother fucker!" He spits underneath his breath as his hands spin me, almost roughly in their anxiousness, to get a good look at my backside.

When he sees the view from behind he starts to shout what I can only assume is a tirade of obscenities (even though I can't be sure, since he's not speaking English anymore). Eric's rage is ratcheting up with every second and, as it does, I can feel his higher brain functions starting to take a backseat to his angry, red, blood-soaked desire to hack, maim and kill whatever did this to me. Fearing that he'll walk right out of the room and tear apart everything in his path, I finally end up being forced to pull away and shout at him, my hands fisting and hitting his chest to get his attention.

"Eric," I all but scream at him, "I'm fine! Skye and I were working out on the glacier today, they're just bruises from practicing, that's all. It's no big deal!" I tell him, trying again to soothe him through our bond. Apparently I suck at it though, because instead of calming down, Eric quickly searches my arm for any place that isn't bruised and discolored and takes me by it, hauling me into the bathroom and putting me in front of the full length mirror.

"That fucking Fairy did this to you?" He all but growls at me.

Ignoring him for a moment, I look in the mirror and finally realize why he's so out of control. Even though I know I wasn't attacked (really), it looks as though I should have been beaten to a bloody pulp. I knew that I was sore and bruised but the reality of it in the mirror is a good deal more horrible looking than my imaginings. I look as though I shouldn't be standing. Turning from the mirror, I do the only thing that I can think of to calm him down.

Ignoring the pain, I take him by the back of the neck and pull his body into mine, wrapping him around me and throwing my love and my well-being at him through the bond.

"Please, calm down. Please, Eric. I know it looks bad, but I swear I'm okay. I did really good today. I did great actually. I'm so excited to tell you, please calm down so I can. You're gonna be so proud of me." I say as I lay kisses on his bare neck and shoulders, realizing only now that he's naked too.

One of Eric's arms goes carefully around me as his face buries itself in my hair. I hear the sounds of him inhaling me, taking in the smell of sunshine and clean, cool ice and Sookie in heaving draughts. After a few tense minutes he seems to simmer down slightly and I hear his voice, soft and uncertain, against my throat.

"Really? You're sure you're alright? You look as though someone's tried to kill you." I laugh just a little, stifling, as best I can, the stabbing pain that shoots through my ribs as I do.

"I swear I'm okay. I know I look bad, but I promise you, I kicked Skye's ass like five times today!" Eric nods just a little against my skin but his hold on me doesn't loosen.

After another minute of reassuring himself, he straightens away from me and I try to repress a shocked shiver as, for the first time in days, I hear the sound of his fangs snicking down. I watch in awe as those fangs, completely restored and sexier than all get out, lower to his wrist and tear it open with savage strength. Eric shoves his bleeding arm against my mouth, ordering me to drink and, without even thinking about it, I latch on, pulling long, thick mouthfuls of his blood into me.

Eric's head falls back at the first pull and with every strong suck he lets out an almost pained sounding grown. Without checking with me first, considering that we have no time for this, I feel the juncture between my legs getting hot and wet and looking down I see that I'm not the only one suddenly turned on. Eric is getting harder with each passing second, his erection standing out straight and hard, filling the small space between us with its un-ignorable presence.

Just as I feel the wound on his wrist close up, Eric swoops down and picks me up, throwing my now good as new body over his shoulder and stalking determinedly back to the bed where I'm thrown down on the soft covers with only a split second to stare up, shocked, into the face of my crazy possessive, over-protective Vampire before he literally launches himself on top of me. His arms and legs cage me as his face dives into my hair and rubs roughly over my neck, his stubble abrading the delicate skin there in his frenzy.

"Honey, we don't have time for this. We have to meet everyone else in less than an hour." I say, my voice breathy, my will power suddenly deserting me in the face of my desire like the most fickle, fair weather friend. Eric lays kisses along my collar bone, his head nodding slightly as he does.

"I know. I know, I just… I just need…" he trails off and I find myself nearly coming when I feel his beautiful, long, thick new fangs begin to scrape their way along my shoulder.

Moaning loud at the heavenly sensation that feels as though it's been denied me for decades instead of just days, I wrap my arms around Eric's back tightly and tilt my head to the side in offering.

I barely register Eric's deep, hard growl before I feel his hands reaching urgently for my breasts, beginning to squeeze and knead them lustfully as his hips lock into position with mine, grinding his erection against my juncture and rubbing along my slit, hitting my little nerve bundle perfectly with every stroke.

Then it happens. Eric licks the side of my neck, moaning his need as he does, and, _finally_, his fangs sink themselves into my skin. His bite is exquisite, the slight sting sending a jolt of pure ecstasy straight from my neck to my pussy and, before he even starts to pull on the wound, I feel a million bright white fireworks going off behind my eyes.

Whether it's the taste of my blood, the pleasure of being able to truly bite me again, the vicarious thrill of my own orgasm telegraphing to him through the bond, or just the plain truth that one of us giving the other pleasure is more satisfying than anything anyone else has ever done to us, I'm not sure. But just as my screams reach their peak, Eric lifts away from my neck, throwing his head back, and roars in complete bliss, his cool, sticky seed jetting thickly onto both of our thighs and stomachs over and over again as he follows me over the cliff.

It's minutes later when I begin to feel my breathing return to normal and the aftershocks of my orgasm die down. Eric's cool tongue is still bathing my neck, sealing my bite marks and healing them as he cuddles me close, continuing to rub his body against mine like a contented lion.

"How did you two not kill each other today?" He asks me in between swipes of his tongue.

I just laugh a little, feeling his blood zinging through me, energizing me even as it wars with the sated feeling left by my orgasm which is trying to get me to just curl up and fall asleep against my oh so perfect lover.

"Apparently Fairies can't kill each other with their light. We can kill each other all sorts of other ways, but not with our light. It hurts like hell, but it's not lethal. I'm pretty sure, if we fought somebody else the way we fought each other today though, they would have been nothing but a pile of broken bones." I hear Eric make another pleasurably, pained groaning sound as he thinks about me beating someone to a bloody pulp with my light and I can feel him start to harden against my thigh.

"My little warrior." He whispers heatedly against my neck as he starts to kiss me again.

Apparently all thoughts of killing Skye for banging me up have now been eradicated from his brain, which has been firmly reset to "sex Sookie all night long" instead. Laughing softly, happy that he's calm and happy and whole and so clearly in love with me, I push him away a little bit, trying to tamp down on my own reluctance as I do.

"Much as I'd rather stay here with you, we have to meet the others soon and I think we definitely need to grab a shower before we do that." I say, gesturing to our lower halves which are still covered in his sticky cum as I give him a shove off the bed.

Eric nods just a little, clearly torn between wanting to stay in bed all night and wanting to get to the big meeting about killing stuff tomorrow night.

~*E*~

Twenty-five hurried minutes later we meet Ulrich, Pam and Skye at the head of our hall and make our way as a group towards the front of the house. There are just over three hundred Vampires here in total, but this meeting is just for the leaders of the various groups.

As we approach the meeting room we see a group of Vampires and some Humans milling around outside the closed door. Pam and Skye break off from us to wait outside with them. Apparently, Eric informs me as we enter the room, it's standard practice to leave a 'second' outside the meeting to make sure that no one is planning to pull a fast one on the people inside.

I look at him kind of baffled when I hear that, but then I suppose, after everything I've seen, that Vampires _are_ kind of like the Mafia and that sounds like something Michael Corleone would definitely do. Resisting the urge to hand Pam a gun and a cannoli (just to cover all the bases) I let Eric lead me into the room with his hand at the small of my back.

Once we're sitting I look around. Despite the many Vampires who are participating in this revolt, there are actually just a handful of leaders. Ilina, standing at the head of the table, begins by introducing us to everyone. When she mentions my name and that I'm Eric's bonded, I notice the man she pointed out as the King of New York make a subtle shift in his chair. His eyes glom onto me in a way that seriously gives me the shivers and I want to shake myself out when I realize that Eric seems to notice it too. In my periphery I see his eyes narrow just a fraction more than usual and his shoulders tense ever so slightly.

"You are the telepath that assisted in the recovery of the late Sheriff of Area nine in Dallas, are you not?" The King asks before Ilina can move on to something else. His tone is nonchalant but it doesn't make me feel any better. I just nod my head and try to ignore him by turning my attention to Ilina, but suddenly I feel Eric's hand take mine under the table and, through the bond, I feel him prompt me to take notice of something.

Out of the corner of my eye I see the King of New York writing something on a pad and sliding it to the Human man that's sitting next to him, who was introduced as his day lieutenant. The man very discreetly reads what's on the paper and then, without a word of explanation, gets up and leaves the room. Squeezing Eric's hand to let him know I saw it, I pretend as though I'm paying rapt attention to the battle plan but in actuality I'm letting my shields down.

"_Skye?"_ I call to her in my head.

"_Sookie?"_ She answers back. _"Anything I can do for you?"_ I try not to snort at that, knowing that we really need to be on our 'A' game right now.

"_Are you still outside the meeting room?"_ I ask.

"_Yes, Pam and I are sitting with Sigmund, if you can believe that. I think she might have grown a soft spot for him in the past few days. I'm trying not to be irrationally jealous. It's not an attractive trait and I pride myself on being nothing but attractive."_

"_That's lovely. I need you to can the lesbian weirdness and focus right now, okay? Did you see the man that just walked out of the conference room?"_ Skye chuckles in my head.

"_The dude who looks like a terrified little accountant?"_ I'm trying really hard not to burst out laughing at that one cause that's exactly what he looks like. He actually makes poor old Bruce seem like a paragon of cool and collected.

"_That's him. I need you to follow him and sift through his head. The second his boss found out I'm a telepath he made him scoot. Something's up."_ Skye gives a fake put upon sigh, but I can already feel her brain moving farther away from mine.

"_I'm on it, but if Pam suddenly turns 'sympathy' straight while I'm off tracking the potential bad guy, I'll blast you twice as hard tomorrow!"_ I have to cough to cover my reaction to that one.

"_I'm pretty sure that's not something you need to worry about. Pam has a distinct and universal distaste for men that starts at their waist bands."_ Skye fades out at that point even though she's not nearly far enough away for it and so I know that she must be concentrating real hard on our guy.

I spend the next few minutes giving the best poker face of my adult life until I feel her tap my brain.

"_The King of New York is an Authority plant."_ She says in my head.

I squeeze Eric's hand none to gently at that and tell Skye to try grab him while carefully motioning, under the table, for Eric to give me something to write with. I try to keep my movements small and unnoticeable even though, now that the only Human I could have read is out of the room, the King of New York is paying full attention to Ilina as she goes through a map of the Authority's compound.

I learned a big lesson from the whole Longshadow thing and that's not to scream out that a Vampire in the room is actually the villain if at all possible. So when Eric slides a small scrap of paper to me under the table and puts a pen in my hand, I never take my eyes off Ilina as I write "King of NY traitor" and hand it off to him. Eric gently nudges Ulrich and the two of them look down at my message together.

Not six seconds after their eyes landed on the note the room is a sudden blur of motion as Eric throws himself across the table, tackling the unsuspecting King to the ground and Ulrich screams out traitor, brandishing a heavy knife from inside his pants and pointing it at the King, now firmly in Eric's grip.


	18. Chapter 18

_**A/N:**__ I'm so sorry this took so long, yet again. This chapter gave me hell and I re-wrote it several times before I figured I just had to let it be! Just a few quick things and I'll shut up._

_1)Thank you more than words can express __**Northman Maille**__! She stepped in so sweetly to beta this chapter for me and saved me in my hour of need! Girl, you are a SAINT!_

_2) I'm letting Eric take the lead this chapter and I wanted to say that if anyone's wondering why his far older and far more powerful Grampappy is just sitting back, I figured that after everything Eric's been through (and frankly, everything I have yet to put him through) in this story, he should get to be the Alpha (cause we all love him like that right?)! I thought Ulrich would feel the same way. I sort of think of Ulrich as just wanting to tag along for the carnage anyway. This is like a vacation for him. He's already the King of everything, he has nothing to prove._

_3) Thanks everyone who's been sticking with story and especially reviewing, you all are THE BEST!_

_**Disclaimer:**__ "We the jury find Mr. Ball guilty on all counts of abuse and mistreatment against his own characters Sookie Stackhouse and Eric Northman and do hereby strip him of all creative license and rights of ownership. In addition we sentence him to two weeks as a prisoner in Fangtasia's basement under the supervision of Warden Pamela Beaufort. Mr. Ball…may god have mercy on your soul!" (also I don't own them!)_

"What the fuck is going on here? Have you all gone mad?" The King of New York screams at us, as he tries to pull Eric's arm from its strangle hold around his throat, his eyes darting around the room in panic, searching for help. I don't suppose he can suffocate, being a Vampire and all, but it must hurt like hell anyways.

The rest of the room is in a kind of shocked suspended animation as the other Vampires stand, ready and waiting for an attack (or an explanation) but make no move against Eric. Considering how powerful some of the people in the room are, it's fairly compelling evidence of how greatly my 'mere' Sheriff is respected in his world.

"Eric, would you care to explain yourself?" Ilina says, her tone almost offhanded, considering that the room is thirty seconds away from devolving into blood-soaked carnage.

As Eric begins to explain, I tap Skye's mind and ask her to bring New York's day lieutenant into the room. Eric is just finishing up when she arrives with him, the day guy trembling and sweating like a pig about to be slaughtered.

"What have you told the Authority?" Ilina asks the Human. He just looks around, like a deer caught in the headlights, and continues to shake in his designer suit.

"Start spilling if you want to live!" Pam demands, her fangs dropping threateningly.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He says in a quivering voice, his eyes darting to Ilina, who waits patiently for an answer. Then on to Pam, who stands over him menacingly, and then to his master, who gives him a glare that makes it clear, if he survives Pam, the King will kill him anyway.

Despite his inability to talk, his head is quite the garbled mix of pleas to God to get him out of this mess, and images of the information that he's given the Authority and where it is. Skye just looks incredulous, eyes wide, at his apparent, arrogant stupidity, as I voice the words that will end our little standoff.

"His cell phone." I motion to Pam. "He didn't even bother to erase his text messages." I see her evil grin, even as the King of New York begins to struggle against Eric in earnest. It takes only one rough frisking for Pam to find the phone in his back pants pocket. She hands it to me and I scroll through the menus, just as he did in his head, and then give the phone to Ilina.

"Anthony, would you care to tell me why your Human has sent the Authority message after message detailing the names of all the Vampires in this room, our location and our plans for tomorrow night?" Again Ilina asks her question with little more concern than if she were quizzing the waiter at a restaurant about the specials. The King of New York, Anthony, just stares dumbfounded, his jaw sawing back in forth in rage, before he does the next logical thing: attempt to shovel all the blame and let someone else take the fall.

"He is acting without my permission, I swear it! He has betrayed me too. Let me go and I will kill him myself" The King cries, redoubling his pointless struggles to get free.

Ilina turns to Skye and me and this time it's Skye who answers her.

"He's acting on the Kings orders." Ilina just nods her head.

"In case there's anyone still in the dark here," Ilina makes a small gesture towards Skye, "Ms. Benson is also a telepath. Sigmund, why don't you take his Majesty and the Human to our less comfortable accommodations." Sigmund nods menacingly at Ilina's instructions and then takes the King roughly from Eric's hold, Ulrich following behind, his knife still drawn.

"Evangeline," she now turns to the woman introduced to us as the Queen of France, "would you and your men please isolate and neutralize Anthony's fighters until we have a clear picture of exactly what his plans were?" The Queen also nods her head, leaving the room and calling her second to her side as she hurries down the hall.

The three other Sheriffs go with her, offering their assistance as well, since the King of New York was apparently the one to bring the most men to this fight. When they're gone Eric straightens himself to his full height, flicking imaginary dust off his shirt, and pinning Ilina with a hard gaze.

"You suspected him all along." He says, his voice low and angry. "And you said nothing." Again Ilina only nods.

"I hoped things would work out exactly as they have. I arranged for the Human to be in the room at the beginning of the meeting and your telepaths were able to ferret him out effortlessly, without any unnecessary losses. You're very lucky Eric, they're quite valuable." Ilina's nonchalance ends then and there when Eric moves faster than my eyes can track and has her against the wall, a foot or more off the ground, held by her delicate, white throat.

"If you ever play me again, little girl, I will end you. I should walk out of here right now, with Ulrich and his men and _my _telepaths and leave you to clean up your own miserable mess. The only reason I have not is, if not taken care of, the Authority has the potential to be more of a thorn in my ass than you are. But mark my words, you fuck with me and mine just once more and I'll deliver you to them myself. I think the head of a now known traitor is more than enough of a bargaining chip to get me back in their good graces. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?" Ilina nods as best she can and Eric returns her to the floor.

"How many men did the King of New York bring with him?" I ask, seeing a further in. It's time we turned this thing in our favor.

"Seventy-five in total." Ilina says, rubbing her neck gingerly.

"All of which are no longer trustworthy." I prompt her further. She shoots me a look of complete contempt but acknowledges, begrudgingly, that I'm right. "Then it seems to me, if you're going to pull this thing off, you're going to need the…eighty-three Vamps Eric and Ulrich have brought you. They aren't just icing on the cake anymore." Eric smiles with complete malevolence as he catches the drift of my thoughts.

"Which means that from now on, you take your marching orders from me." He says, his brand spanking, new fangs glistening and his face transforming into an expression of gloating triumph. "Otherwise I'll make good on my threat." Ilina makes one last attempt to get things going in her favor again, but it's paltry at best.

"Hardly," She scoffs. "We will postpone the attack. The others here can gather more men if given a few more nights."

Eric just laughs in her face.

"You don't have a few more nights, Ilina. The Authority knows who and where you are. They are expecting your attack tomorrow night. If you don't show up they'll simply hunt you down en masse. You and your allies will be ash by the time the sun sets the night after tomorrow." Going once… going twice...

"Very well." Sold to the Sheriff from Louisiana. "I will do as you say." She spits out.

"Good choice." Eric says, turning to me for just a moment and sending me wave after wave of pride and love, mixed with a nice, solid undercurrent of lust. "Now why don't we join Sigmund and Ulrich and find out exactly what's going on. Sookie, Skye," Eric looks at us both but he's all business this time. I'd like you to round up all the Humans in the compound and read them as quickly as possible. We need to know if anyone else is planning on betraying us. Pam, go with them and start now, I'll send Ulrich shortly to assist you." We all nod in unison and head out to start what's looking like it's going to be a long and exhausting night.

~*S*~

A few grueling hours later it's done. All the Humans have been read, their Vampire bosses offering them up without argument, eager to make sure that there isn't another traitor among us. The only questions now are what exactly the King of New York was planning and what to do with his men, who are now being held by Ulrich, Queen Evangeline and Sigmund.

As the last Human leaves the conference room, I lean over in my chair, rubbing the bridge of my nose and trying to alleviate the ache forming there. Even with Eric's blood, today has been long and… draining to say the least. It's clear I'm not the only one who feels that way either. Skye looks just about as bushed as I am, and we trade weary smiles between us as we try and gather the energy to put our shields back up. The only person in the room who doesn't look exhausted is Pam. No surprise there, I guess, but what is surprising is how…jumpy she seems.

Unless they're feeding, fighting or fucking, Vampires are usually the epitome of zen, able to be so still that if you didn't know otherwise, you could easily mistake them for exceptionally lifelike mannequins. Of all the Vampires I know, Pam is the very best at that kind of thing, never a hair out of place, never a single emotion, besides boredom, marring her perfect, ever youthful face… and _never_ an unsightly fidget or twiddle. The only other time I've ever seen her otherwise, is when she was pacing my living room waiting for Eric to come back from fighting Russell Edgington.

And while I completely understood her reaction to the Russell thing, I can't think of any reason for her to be bouncing one of her legs and tapping the fingernails of one hand on the conference room table, as she's doing right now.

"What up, Pam?" I finally decide to just ask. Pam looks over at me distractedly, mumbles a quick 'nothing' and then turns back to stare aimlessly at the wall.

I don't get the chance to ask her anything else though, because right then her cell phone goes off. Pam pulls it out of her pocket and stares for a second, at what must be a text message, before turning to Skye.

"They're just about ready to start questioning the Human, Eric wants you to head down to the basement." Huh?

"Wait." I say, holding up one of my hands and stopping Skye from getting out of her seat. "Eric texted you and asked for Skye to go downstairs?" Pam, just nods her head, that jumpy look still painted all over her face. "Why would he ask for Skye and not me?" Pam and Skye share a meaningful look between them before Pam's face transforms into a perfect imitation of affection and concern.

"Sookie, you're exhausted, I'm sure Eric can feel that. We're on the eve of a huge battle and we're already going in at a disadvantage. I'm sure Eric just wants you to rest after everything you've been through tonight, so you'll be at your best for tomorrow." Pam's sincere expression and her soft words are so convincing that I almost buy her whole spiel lock, stock and smoking barrel, until I notice I don't feel Eric through our bond.

The steady hum of his life force is thrumming away in his little corner of my heart and its strength tells me that he's close by and well, but his emotions don't register at all. He's cut me off again, just like he did when he went to fight Russell a few nights ago.

"Cut the bull crap Pam. Why is Eric asking for Skye and not me, and why is he blocking the bond?" Pam gives me a look of grudging respect as I stare her down. Apparently, she didn't figure I'd see through her that easily.

"Sookie, what's going on down in the basement?" Pam counters my question with one of her own and I just look at her exasperatedly.

"Eric and Ilina are interrogating the King of New York and his lieutenant." I answer her, the 'well duh' implied in my tone.

"And how do you think they're doing that?" Okay Pam is clearly the winner of the 'well duh' contest.

"Oh." Is all I can say.

"Oh." She mimics and, cause Pam's a bitch, she punches her single syllable with another implied 'well duh'.

Clearly Skye and I are more tired than either of us are willing to admit because at that moment I get a barrage of images from her head, things that she's imagining might be going on downstairs and before I can gather enough energy to throw my shields up, my stomach is already turning over. I sure I've gone through several different shades of green. Skye must realize neither of us are shielding when she sees my face because she starts thinking about unicorns and rainbows while making an apologetic face, and patting me gently on the back.

"I'll go down, you stay up here and take a breather." She says, turning to head out the conference room door.

"NO!" I find myself saying without really thinking. "You stay, if Eric needs one of us, I'll go." I say, my voice filled with an authority I usually reserve for pushing Eric himself around.

"Sookie, you don't want to go down there. Just listen to Eric for once and let Skye go." Pam says, her voice betraying her irritation. Her tone and her insistence just make me angrier though and I find myself, in typical Sookie fashion, stamping my foot and fisting my hands at my side.

"I will not. Does Eric really think I can't handle a little blood?" I ask, my voice as shrill and harpy-esque as ever. I know that Eric wasn't there to see it, but for God's sake I rescued Bill from a God dang barn coated in his blood and guts, and staked his whore of maker all on my own. I can handle a little King of New York on the floor!

Clearly, my tone pushes Pam to her own limit because the slight breeze that picks up my hair is the only indication anything in the room is different until I blink and Pam's face is less than an inch from my own, her fangs down and her eyes full of anger.

"It's not about the fucking blood, Sookie. The King of New York isn't just downstairs being tortured, he's downstairs being tortured by Eric, who's enjoying every single blood soaked, scream filled moment of it.

And while I, as a Vampire, and Skye, as a Supe, can understand how and why he's enjoying it so much, he has enough presence of mind left, even now, to be worried that his sweet, still fairly innocent and generally more self-righteous than thou little Human girlfriend might not be able to handle seeing him like that and still look at him with those soft, adoring eyes you're so good at. Eric worked his butt off to get you to see how much he loved you and to get you to feel something for him in return. He's not about to mess it up now, so just shut the hell up, sit the fuck down and take a fucking break until he's done, kay?" Well I guess I know why Pam is so jumpy now. Clearly Eric hasn't blocked _their_ bond and she's feeling the echo of his bloodlust through it.

I want to be mad at Pam right now, I really do, but I just can't be. For one I know that she's just trying to protect Eric from getting hurt and for the other, I know that even though Pam and I have come a long way together in the last few days, she can't have any idea that I've been shedding that Sookie, the one who would have acted exactly the way she's predicting, like an old skin.

She can't know how many times, since I found Eric wondering on the road to my house, I've sworn to myself that I would never let anything hurt him and, after we fell in love, that I would never let anything take him from me.

All she knows is the Sookie who gullibly allowed Bill to foster the belief in her that the Human world and the Supernatural one were inherently the same. That Vampires (Vampires other than him, mind you) only acted the way they did because they were vicious, soulless creatures who adored violence and evil for its own sake. They were simply animals, beasts wallowing in their beastly nature, and Eric was the worst of them all.

All she knows is the Sookie who _did _treat Eric, so many, many times, like a soulless animal beneath her respect. And while I know she understands I love him now, that I would fight for him and die for him, I can't blame her for not believing that I can handle seeing him at his darkest and most instinctual. I especially can't blame her because it appears that Eric isn't ready to believe it either.

Again, it's a stark reminder that in actual days, Eric and I haven't been a couple for more than a few blinks of an eye. Can I really blame him for fearing that seeing him openly revel in another person's pain would push me too far, would push me away?

The truth is that I really don't want to see it. I don't want to walk down there and see the man I love gleefully hurting someone else, but if I say I love Eric, all of Eric, then don't I have to? I chose a future with him and no one else. I chose a future with a thousand year old, warrior Vampire and I knew, at least theoretically, that this side of him existed. What's more he's doing exactly what needs doing to save us.

The information that he gets from the King and his men will be what stands between us all and the very real possibility of death, or for Skye and I, imprisonment and experimentation by the Authority. If I'm going to benefit from that then I don't have the right to sit up here, prim and proper, and keep my hands clean while judging the man I love for giving into a nature that was a part of him long before he gave up daylight.

I know it's one thing to lay in our bed and let him whisper dark, pretty words about keeping us safe and together whatever the cost while he drives me to insanity with his body, and another thing entirely to see the reality. But now's the time to put my money where my mouth is. Now's the time to prove that I meant it when I said I'd do the same.

All during my inner monologue I barely even noticed, tired and in as little control as I am right now, my "Fairyness" has been welling up, but as I see Pam take a healthy step back from me, her eyes wide and shocked, I realize that it's spilling out of me. My whole body, not just my hands, has a faint glow to it and I can feel myself gearing up to start sparking. Instead of apologizing for it though, I level Pam with a menacing stare of my own.

"If Eric needs a telepath, than I'm the one he's going to get. Pam, Skye, why don't _you both_ take a rest." I say through gritted teeth, my tone totally belying my polite words. Pam nods, taking another healthy step back and Skye just chuckles from her seat, making no secret of the fact that she's pleased as punch that not only did my gifts come to me automatically in a non-life threatening situation, but that I'm rising to the occasion, making myself a match for my man.

I send her a thankful mental pulse and then I'm making my way out of the room and, following the ever loudening sounds of screaming, to the basement.

When I make it down to the dank, ill lit space, I stop short for just a second on the landing. I'll have to remember to tell Skye she's lacking in imagination when I get back upstairs, cause seriously what I saw in her head is candy canes and lollypops in comparison to the reality. Once I've had that thought, I make myself keep going.

A single bare light bulb swinging gently from the center of the ceiling is the room's only illumination. It's perfect lighting for a Vampire, but I'm perversely glad I still seem to be glowing slightly, otherwise slipping on the blood soaked floor or tripping on a stray organ would be a real possibility

On the far wall, just barely discernible, is the King of New York, or what's left of him. He hangs from the ceiling by a silver chain wrapped around his chest, the Vampire lethal metal slowly burning its way through his skin. If he were left hanging from it long enough it might bi-sect him completely, but honestly he doesn't look like he's going to last long enough for that to happen.

He screams out in pain as I see Ilina rip off what's left of his right arm, with a spray of blood, and toss it aside. It falls just below the chained form of the King's day lieutenant, who weeps openly, reciting the same first three lines of the Lord's Prayer over and over again. Besides a few prominent fang marks he doesn't look too bad off actually. Clearly Eric and Ilina are letting him enjoy the show they're making of his Master before questioning him. From the smell of urine that surrounds him, I'd say their plan is working pretty well.

"What were you offered in return?" Ilina repeats a question that she's asked several times since I've come down here, and still the King refuses to answer.

But I see his pained eyes grow wide with even more fear as Eric emerges from a room off the side of the main area, a long metal poker in his hand, the tip glowing white hot. Ilina laughs the most frightening laugh I've ever heard, as she takes the King's flaccid member in her hand and stretches it to its limit, sinking her fingernails half an inch into the skin to hold it taut. Eric holds the hot poker in front of the captive Vampires face, letting him feel the heat coming from the thing, before smiling like Satan himself.

"Anthony," Eric draws out his name in a mocking tone, "It could be such a quick end. All this could be over in just a single second, if only you'd cooperate. Is it really worth losing your existence appendage by appendage when you'll only end up telling me everything I want to know anyway?" Eric's voice is calm, his words said in a soft, soothing tone that's completely at odds with the look of complete satisfaction painting his face.

The King only gives a defiant grunt in answer and I watch as Eric shrugs indifferently and brings the poker down. A single second before the hot metal would have castrated the King, he screams out for Eric to stop.

In a rush that's almost too fast to comprehend he gives Eric and Ilina all the information they've been asking for. He tells them how he went to the Authority after being felt out by Ilina. He tells them how he bargained for the Kingdom of France and the right to choose Sheriffs from among his own loyal people to replace the traitors who were planning to rebel, in exchange for the information he fed them. Then, after just a few hours at Eric and Ilina's hands, he begs them for a swift end.

I can see the contempt in Eric's eyes and it strikes me that he's annoyed to have wasted his considerable talents in torture on someone who would give in so fast. With a frightened shiver I realize that Eric would never give in so easily or so quickly. If it came to it the Authority, or any of our other as yet nameless and faceless enemies, would hurt and maim him for days and days, maybe more.

Pushing that thought away I watch as Eric drops the poker contemptuously and picks up a long, thick stake from the table of big, scary stuff next to him. Without any more words Eric plunges the stake through his victim's chest. The former King of New York splatters over both Eric and Ilina, before falling to the floor in a puddle of goo.

Far from being disgusted by the sight, I watch as Ilina hisses in ecstasy, rubbing the blood over her face and chest, quite literally bathing in it. Eric is more subtle in his bloodlust, but it's there all the same and I can hear the groan of pleasure that comes out of his mouth. I stand frozen in place as Ilina hears his answering noise and her eyes go utterly black and predatory. Sliding up to Eric, looking less Human than I've ever seen anyone, she tries to wrap her arms around him but despite the glazed, far off look in his eyes, he stops her immediately, not letting her get a hand on him.

"Oh come on Eric, for old time's sake." She practically purrs up at him, attempting to rub herself against him as he holds her away from his body.

"No." Is his single firm answer as he throws her back, not hard enough to knock her to the ground, but hard enough to make her stumble before regaining her balance. Ilina's answer is to laugh at him viciously.

"What, are you saving it all for your little Fairy? She doesn't strike me as the type to want to help you work off the tension you've built up murdering someone. And look at you Eric, you're hard enough to cut diamonds right now. Let me help you. Let's help each other."

As I stand there watching the scene in front of me I feel the strangest sense of calm. I should blast this little bitch from here to Kingdom come, but why? Eric doesn't even know I'm in the room and yet I can see from his face, from the way he stands, he isn't in the least bit interested or tempted to take her up on her offer. He _is_ painfully hard right now, it _would _probably be so easy to give in to one more instinctual response, but I don't have to be there, hissing over his shoulder like a jealous, insecure bitch for him to know that he belongs to me.

Eric growls once, low and long, and there's nothing even the least bit sexy about it. It's a one hundred percent fear inducing sound and his message is perfectly clear: If Ilina doesn't back off she's going to be the next victim of his barely restrained violence.

Clearly Ilina retains some sense even in her own heightened emotional state because she shrugs her shoulders as though it doesn't matter to her in the least, and turns to the Human still hanging on the wall whispering what he remembers of his prayers. It's at that moment I decide to clear my throat and make my presence known.

Both Eric and Ilina turn to me at the same time and I see two looks that couldn't be more different painting their faces. Ilina glowers at me with more of her thinly veiled contempt, actually there's no veil this time, she just looks out and out like she hates my guts, which is fine cause I hate hers even more.

But Eric's face is stricken. I see anxiety first and then out right fear. He must be realizing that he has no idea how long I've been in the room or how much I've seen. The play of emotions across his face making me want more than anything to reassure him, though I can't because our bond is still stopped up tight from his end.

Instead, I decide to just hold my head up high, playing up my virtuous little self, since everyone seems to expect that of me. I walk with all the haughtiness of a Queen to Eric's side, completely ignoring Ilina and come to stand a hair's breadth from him. Pam said that Eric was afraid my seeing him this way would wipe the adoration for him from my eyes, so unable to send him my love and my acceptance through our bond, I look up at him with the most worshipful expression I own.

"We're done upstairs. Everyone else passed muster." Gesturing to the Human still hanging in front of us, I keep talking, never taking my focus from Eric. "The Human is ready to talk if you have anything left to ask him." The words are barely out of my mouth when Eric takes my arms in an iron grip and hauls me to his body, his mouth taking mine ferociously as the bond rips wide open.

I can feel everything, his fear and uncertainty, his disbelief that I'm here, that I came, how I chose to help him in this when he'd given me an out, and his joy and pride in me along with the ever present strains of his love and lust. I don't hesitate to kiss him back, to grab the back of his neck and roughly take hold of the strands of his hair, or to let my other hand cup his bottom possessively.

I know he needs this right now, and the truth is that despite my wish that things would never come to something like this, I find myself…grateful, even proud, that this fierce, powerful, ancient man who will stop at nothing to keep us safe, is mine. I don't want Eric to hide himself from me, any of himself. I'll happily take the good with the bad if it means getting to have him for as long as I live and I'll never fault him for doing what has to be done to protect us, no matter how dirty the reality of it is.

For the next half hour, Eric and Ilina go over what the King of New York told them as I read his lieutenant, gauging what the man knows and whether what the King told them is truthful as far as the Human understands. When that too is done, Ilina raises her hands, still a slave to her blood lust, and prepares to tear the man limb from limb, only to be stopped by Eric.

"Glamour him." He says, his voice firm, his command not to be disobeyed. Ilina looks at him disbelieving, wanting to fight him for all of ten seconds before she acquiesces, recognizing his authority. "Sookie, you will release him after dawn and set him on his way." Eric finishes.

"Yes, Eric." I say, my hand squeezing his fractionally. I can feel that Eric would have liked him dead too, but he won't kill the man when glamouring will suffice. He won't do it because he knows I wouldn't want it.

I think of the grudging bargain we made all that while ago in Fangtasia's empty main room, I would only help Eric if he promised not to kill the Humans involved. It makes me a little dizzy to realize that Eric isn't doing this because of any promise he made to me, but because he wants me not just to be happy, but to be proud of him. He feels such pride in me right now, that I came, I accepted him when I didn't have to, and I'm sending it right back to him, that he showed mercy when he didn't have to.

We'll talk about all of this later, but for now this is enough.

~*E*~

Two hours before dawn, we're all back in the conference room again, those of us that needed it showered and clean, but this time things are decidedly different. This time it's Eric who stands at the head of the table, Ilina sitting in the first chair scowling like toddler who's had her toy taken away, and the other leaders tense and worried looking.

"The King of New York has betrayed us to the Authority. He has met his true end, but the fact remains they know who you are, what your plans are and they are expecting the attack tomorrow night. Regardless, if we do not meet them tomorrow, they will now come for you. Therefore, we must proceed. The plan itself must change, though. Since the Authority is unaware that King Ulrich and his men, or I and my bonded, have joined the fight, we can use these things to our advantage.

Instead of one full on assault, we will go in two waves. The first wave going in and allowing themselves to be 'captured' so the Authority will believe that they have successfully won the battle and let their guard down. The second wave coming in shortly afterwards to sandwich their forces. Once we have them trapped we will be able to put them down with little effort.

Sookie, Skye" Eric turns to us, "how far apart can the two of you be and still communicate telepathically?" He asks. Skye and I look at each other and shrug. We haven't really tried to test something like that, but at one point Skye was all the way across the compound and we could talk to each other just fine.

"I can't say for certain," Skye begins, "but I would venture to guess we could communicate easily even over a distance of several miles. My telepathy and Sookie's are both quite strong." Eric nods.

"Then I will take Sookie with Ulrich, his men and I as well as the Sheriff of Rome and his fighters in the first wave, and Skye you will stay with Pam, the Queen of France and the Sheriffs of Los Angeles and Baden and their men in the second wave.

Sookie as soon as we've engaged the Authority forces you'll communicate with Skye and the second wave will enter the compound and trap those loyal to the Authority between us. During the fight I will need the both of you to remain in communication in case anyone requires help." Looking around the room I can see that the other leaders agree with Eric, making things nice and easy.

"What about the King of New York's men?" The Sheriff of Rome, Franco, asks, his fangs shooting down. Eric scowls at the question.

"They cannot be relied upon. They will be held until after the battle has been won and then released, hopefully smart enough to be grateful for their lives. With the men that his majesty of Denmark has brought, you will be eight Vampires more than you had originally planned. It should not be of consequence." Eric says, assuring the others that we still have enough people to pull this off.

After some more subtle fine tuning to the plan everyone disperses getting ready to greet the coming dawn with an air of barely repressed excitement. The Vampires here are gearing up for the fight tomorrow night and it all but pervades the halls.

We say a quick goodnight to everyone else and then Eric ushers us into our room, moving away from me slightly to lock the door. When he turns back around I do what I've been spoiling to do for half the night.

The loud cracking noise is the only sound in the room as the palm of my hand connects with the side of Eric's face. I hit him hard enough for his head to turn to the side and when it snaps back and his eyes lock with mine again I see a healthy dose of anger mixing with a good deal of disbelief.

"What the fuck was that for?" He bites out between gritted teeth, his fangs slamming down as he speaks.

"Don't you dare ever treat me the way Bill used to again! Do you hear me Eric Northman? How dare you fucking ask for Skye to come down to the basement? How dare you try to shield me like a helpless, pathetic, worthless little girl. I chose you, not just because I loved the hell out of you, but because you and I were partners, equals in our future together, because you didn't try to shield me or protect me from the darker side of your world or from the darker side of yourself.

What you did tonight, that's what Bill always fucking did. Treating me like I was too God damn naïve to be able to handle the reality of things. I expect better from you. I DEMAND better from you. I'm your bonded, your woman, your…your… your WIFE! Don't you ever pull that shit with me again!" I barely register what I said, I was just desperate to find a word that could describe what we mean to each other, but Eric's reaction is immediate.

Ignoring my anger and the real possibility of being smacked again, he pulls me flush against him for the umpteenth time tonight, his face diving into my hair, his arms banding like steel around me. Through our bond I feel a flood of remorse and it helps me to calm down just a little.

"Forgive me." He asks, softly. "You're right. I shouldn't have done it and I'm truly sorry. I promise you that I won't underestimate or mistrust you again, lover." I nod my head, although it probably looks and feels a good deal more like I'm rubbing my cheek up and down Eric's neck, but whatever.

"You dang well better not…but for now you're forgiven." I say, doing more nodding/rubbing.

"Thank you." Eric answers me, his own rubbing starting to be accompanied by a good deal of contented, happy Vampire noises. After a few blissful moments Eric pulls back, his hands coming up to cup the sides of my face. "Did you mean it?" He asks me, his voice soft and unsure.

"Mean what?" Still not realizing what I'd said in my fit of temper.

"You called yourself my wife. Are you Sookie?" Eric's eyes are molten and without depth, so blue they look like fathomless pools. From our bond I can feel a tidal wave of emotions, hope, fear, love, lust, need. I'd said what I said without thinking, but the truth is paltry terms like girlfriend and bonded, they haven't felt right for a while now. I wouldn't have believed a month ago that you could be someone's husband or wife simply by saying the words but I realize now, in all the ways that matter, it's already the truth.

"Yes." I say simply, knowing that Eric doesn't need any effusive, flowery speeches. He can feel my own tidal wave of emotions and all the feelings that can't be expressed adequately in words. Eric's smile lights up the whole room, brighter and more brilliant than the sun he hasn't seen in a thousand years and with that smile comes a tsunami of joy.

"My wife." He whispers reverently just before his mouth comes down to claim mine. The kiss is long and hard and as our lips move against each other in a frenzy as our tongues tangle together and our teeth clash against one another. All the while I'm only vaguely aware that Eric is moving us towards the bed. He breaks the kiss for a single moment to let me breathe and to remove the suddenly burdensome layers of clothing between us and then he's lowering me to soft mattress.

"My husband." I answer him back and feel his mouth smiling against the pulse at my neck. Eric lays a wet kiss to the throbbing point.

"Always." He says, his voice filled with passion and conviction. "Always." And then I feel the pin prick of his fangs sinking into my skin.

We spend the remainder of the night solemnizing our private vows with sweetly whispered words, soft caresses and breathless sighs and when the dawn takes him for another day I lay sated and exhausted beside the man who is my everything: my lover, my bonded, my husband, my Eric feeling complete for the first time in my entire life.


	19. Chapter 19

_**A/N:**__ Anyone up for a little bloodshed? _

_Yeah, we finally made it to the big battle! I really wanted to make the finale interesting and so I tried to inject a little drama (read: angst) into it, give it a little twist. I hope you enjoy what I came up with and I promise all the pesky loose ends I left littering the floor will get cleared up in the last chapter._

_Thank you as always to my beta, Sheknitsnicely, for her awesome editing job and thanks to everyone who's been following this story: reading, reviewing, favorting and alerting. I've been atrocious at having anything like a set posting schedule and I really appreciate y'all putting up with me!_

_**Disclaimer:**__ I own them!_

_Woot Woot, that's right, Alan Ball is currently screaming for his mommy in Fangtasia's dungeon and Eric and Sookie are officially _MINE_! I won them fair and square! (Ask Washington State superior court!) However, since I'm a very busy person, I might need a few reliable and caring individuals to help me care for my new charges (especially Eric, he's such a handful) you don't happen to know anyone who would be interested do you? (jk- we all know the truth, but it's nice to pretend)._

As we watch Ilina, Sigmund and the other Enforcers in our party walk through the doors of the Authority compound the next night, I prepare to add another skill to my already diverse resume. Sookie Stackhouse: Waitress, occasional Bar manager, full-time Telepath, part-Fairy, amnesiac Vampire babysitter, Witch slayer and, now, living walkie-talkie.

The night air is chill around us, but I barely feel it as we wait in tense silence for Ilina to send up the signal that will have us breaking through the doors and finally fighting this fight. Whatever else I might think of her, she and Sigmund and the rest of them have my respect right now. It takes guts to be the first to walk calmly into what you already know is a trap.

Our group of about a hundred and fifteen Vampires waits at the east wing of the compound to go in first, while Skye and Pam wait with the second group of about a hundred and twenty at the west side, to sweep through behind us.

"It shouldn't be more than another ten or fifteen minutes." Eric whispers from his position crouched at my side. "They just have to verify that everyone who should be is in the room and then we'll go." I nod my head to let Eric know I've heard him. "Sookie," Eric says, taking my hand in his own, "when we go in there, stay at my side." I nod again, but actually turn to look at him when I feel him squeeze my hand just this side of hard. "And Sookie," Eric's eyes are bright with barely restrained lust for the battle that's about to come, "don't hesitate to blast anything that comes at you. Do you understand?"

"I promise." I say, letting Eric's calm and confidence seep through me, settling my nerves and infusing me with a good dose of his excitement.

The next minutes tick by like molasses but finally Eric's cell phone gives the little chime that means it's time to get this rebellion on the road. The Vampires do an impressive job of standing nearly as one and drawing their weapons. It's a terrifying, awe-inspiring sight and I find myself responding to it unconsciously.

As we start to move to the doors, I can feel my body lighting up, "Fairy Sookie" taking control even before any threat makes itself known. Beside me, I see Eric smile with pride as he looks down on me at his side, exactly where I belong. I send my pride in him right back and then we both focus our attention where it belongs, in front of us at the barrage of enemies that are no doubt waiting.

There are only four guards standing at the doors in front of us and, just as they see us approaching, I let off my red light, hitting two of them square in the chest, setting both on fire and blasting them backwards.

I get off one more shot, causing one of them to disintegrate completely as Eric and Ulrich rush forward, taking the heads off of two of the others. The Sheriff of Rome takes care of the other Vampire I hit, running him through even as he smolders.

Blasting the door in front me, I blow the lock off and Eric kicks in the frame, setting off the alarm. We don't stop or hesitate in the least but I can feel a sudden sense of foreboding coming through the bond as we enter the compound to find the hallway all but empty. Before I have the chance to ask, Ulrich, who stands at my other side, hisses.

"Where is everyone?" He growls.

"It's almost as though they aren't expecting us." Eric bites out, never letting his guard down. We make it halfway down one more almost empty corridor before we meet a group of Authority Enforcers, running in our direction and armed to the teeth, but not nearly as many in number as I would have expected.

The fight against them is equally quick. A few swings with the swords, a few blasts of my red light, and they're nothing more than piles of goop and ash on the linoleum floor. As the men behind us grumble in frustration that they haven't gotten the chance to kill anything yet, I feel Eric's puzzled anxiety.

We keep moving, fighting the Vampires here and there that meet us, but it's becoming obvious that something is very, very off. Tapping Skye's mind, outside on the other end of the building, I tell her what we're finding. The others (Pam, Queen Evangeline, and the other two Sheriffs) agree with Eric and Ulrich's assessment of things, but whatever is waiting for us, there's no turning back now.

We follow the corridors and finally reach the main meeting area. There we find the first big group of Vampires, waiting for us. Their eyes go wide when they see us and it's clear that we outnumber them significantly, but they attack swiftly anyway, as they've no doubt been trained to.

Eric gives a war cry that's echoed by the other Vampires with us and soon we're in the middle of a melee, our Vamps mixing with the Enforcers loyal to the Authority in a fierce dance that leaves it difficult to tell who is fighting on what side.

I try to stay as close as possible to Eric as the swords swing and the blood flies, but I understand, in that moment, why he told me to fire at anything that comes my way. In the middle of all the blood and gore it's impossible to tell who's who and so I'm left with no other choice than to do as he said, firing off my light at anyone who advances on me, not stopping to identify faces or try to pick out friends from our enemies.

As the Vampires behind us continue to fight each other, Eric, Ulrich and I break out of the mess to reach the doors to the meeting room. When Eric kicks it in, we find the members of the Authority are all there, Ilina, Sigmund and their men fighting against them and holding their own.

There's no time to stop and ask questions, but this isn't what we were expecting. At the very least we thought we'd find Ilina and her Enforcers bound after the alarms went off. There can't be any question now that the Authority had no idea we were coming.

Unable to take the time to figure out what all this means, I send the mental okay to Skye to bring the second wave in and then we join the fight going on in the room, our men and the Authority guys falling into the room behind us as they battle. Faster than I can see, three Vampires rush us and, knowing that Eric an Ulrich are still next to me, I fire off my light without waiting to find out who it is.

Unfortunately, this time, with so many people moving so fast, I miss. Two of the Vampires dive right in, attacking Ulrich and Eric, but the third one succeeds in hitting me hard in the gut, sending me flying backwards into the wall with enough force to crack the drywall behind me.

I try to fight the pain in my stomach and back and the dizzy spinning feeling in my head and get up again, knowing that if I don't my chances of surviving are limited at best. As I do, I hear as much as see Eric moving in front of me, fighting both the Vampire who attacked him and the one that hit me at the same time.

I'm still on the floor, but from between Eric's legs I see a clear opportunity. I fire off a round of white light (not daring to use the red stuff so close to Eric) and manage to blast both Vampires away from us. One of them gets sent straight back into the waiting sword of another, crying out in pain and then falling when the Vampire who skewered him pulls his sword out and uses it to lop off his head. The other one recovers quickly enough and charges back at Eric, who meets him stroke for stroke.

I can feel Eric willing me to get to my feet and I use all my strength to do just that when something in the wall catches my eye. There, peeking out from the Sookie sized crack, is the silhouette of wires attached to a small object. If I'd landed even three inches to the right I probably would ended up directly on top of it.

"Eric," I scream above the sounds of carnage, just as he beheads the Vampire who attacked me, "there's a bomb in the wall!" Eric turns to me, eyes wide. Both of us take the moment's reprieve we seem to have from fighting to look around the room, trying desperately to figure out who has the detonator.

The room is in total chaos, Vampires fighting Vampires, blood spewing and limbs flying, men and women both, screaming in pain or in exaltation as they're either the winner or loser of a particular fight, and everything happening at dizzying Vampire speed.

My fear ratchets higher and higher as it meets with my frustration that everything is going too fast for my Human brain to process when, from the corner of my eye I notice the Vampire fighting with Sigmund. They're battling each other hard, but as Sigmund tries to land a blow his opponent crouches down low, dodging Sigmund's blade and running him through the stomach. Sigmund rears back in pain, momentarily stunned by the steel now lodged in his gut, but instead of taking the opportunity to finish his wounded enemy off, the other Vampire only kicks him off his sword and rushes out of the room.

"Him!" I say, pointing, but of course it's too late for Eric to see him. Before I can say anything more, Eric hauls me up off the ground by my arm, his eyes meeting mine with a fierce glint.

"Leave, Sookie! Get out of here. Let Skye know to have the others retreat. Tell them to get the fuck away from the building and go!" Eric's words hit me like a pitcher of glacial water in the face.

"What? NO! I won't leave you here!" I yell back at him, trying to be heard over the noise. Eric shakes me, even as we both see two Vampires beginning to advance on us.

"God damn you woman, now!" There's no time for us to keep arguing as the two Vampires finally reach us. I know Eric meant for me to pop away since I'm not nearly as destruction proof as he is, but there is no fucking way I'm just leaving him here to go up in smoke. Instead, I maneuver my way towards the door, blasting anyone who gets too close to me.

As I move, I hear Eric calling out that the room is wired. Some of the Vampires hear him and stop fighting but others are too far gone in their bloodlust and pay the warning no attention. I turn back, as I finally reach the doors, to see Eric, Ulrich, Ilina and some of the others from both sides trying to get out of the room and Eric catches my eye again, his strong command for me to run zinging to me through our bond. I nod my head, letting him believe that I'm following his order, but take off in the direction of the Vampire I saw escape the room instead.

As I search the empty corridors, I tap Skye, letting her know to get the others out. Her affirmative reply rings in my head just as I hear the sound of an explosion and fall to the ground, knocked forward by the force of it.

~*S*~

"Sookie, wake up?" I open my eyes just a crack at the sound of a voice that's at once familiar and totally unexpected, not remembering how they closed in the first place. Looking up in the direction of the voice, I see someone who can't possibly be there and I blink twice, shaking my head to try and clear it. But the sight in front of me doesn't change.

"Godric?" I croak out, still dazed and disbelieving.

"You must get up, Sookie. Eric needs you. I am with him as well but there is little time." The image of my Vampire's maker says, in his ever soft and quiet voice, even as his dark, ancient eyes betray his anxiety.

Before I can say anything else though, I hear footsteps coming from down the hall and I unconsciously turn in their direction for just a moment. When I turn back to where Godric was kneeling in front of me, he's gone.

"Sookie, thank God!" Skye says, running towards me.

"What's going on?" I ask her, struggling to my feet, shaking off the fuzzy feeling in my head for good and checking the aches and pains I feel in my body to see how serious they are. Nothing seems too bad except for my right arm, which hurts like a bitch. Looking around, I try to figure out where we are.

As I see the dust-filled smoke clouding the air it all comes rushing back to me: the fight, the bomb, Eric's order for me to get out and the sound and feel of the explosion, Godric waking me up and warning me. Suddenly the pain in my arm matters very little. "Oh my God, Eric! Skye, where is he? How long was I out?" Skye looks at me and her face is a mask of uncertainty and her mind is completely blank to me. She's shielding big time.

"The blast went off about five minutes ago, just as we cleared the front doors. We rushed around to the east entrance and found a single Vampire escaping. He's being held prisoner now." I nod my head, knowing this must be the Vampire who set off the bomb, but hardly caring.

"Where's everyone else? Where's Eric?" I ask her in a rush. Again, Skye's expression clouds. "Skye, answer me!" My voice gets louder and shriller with every word, but as Skye reaches out to try to lay a calming hand on me, I pull away hard. I don't want to be calmed. I want to know where Eric is, NOW!

"Pam is with the others, trying to move the debris from the blast. I broke off from them to find you since I could feel that you weren't near the explosion when it went off. We don't know yet if anyone survived the blast." Skye keeps talking but I don't bother to listen. Nothing else she has to say means anything to me.

Closing my eyes, the way I've already closed my ears, I take a deep breath and try to feel the bond. I almost fall over from relief when I find it, still there, humming away. That little piece of Eric that I hold inside me hasn't been ripped away, but his emotions are muted, not blocked off, but dulled. And then it hits me, the faint echo of his pain. It's as though he's trying to block me, trying to spare me, but he can't. Suddenly I remember the words Godric spoke to me in my weird, lucid dream.

"He's alive, but I need to get to him. He needs me!" I say in a breathless whisper, my eyes opening and my whole being focusing down to one single point. We have to find him and we have to find him now!

Taking Skye's hand, I drag her back through the corridors towards what used to be the meeting room. We manage to make it three quarters of the way back when we're met by a wall of fallen debris and the other Vampires from the second wave, working fast and hard to clear away what's blocking us without bringing what remains of the ceiling down on our heads.

Pam is at the very front of the group, digging away at her heightened speed, blood tears running down her cheeks as she does. She doesn't stop what she's doing or even spare us a glance, but somehow she knows I'm there.

"Sookie, can you feel him? I can't feel him." She asks, her hands never stopping their work.

"Faintly. He's still alive Pam, but he's hurt. He's in pain." I say, my voice trembling and my own tears threatening to fall. Pam nods, and I hear her exhale an unnecessary breath at my words.

Skye and I watch for a few more minutes as the Vampires keep working, but with every passing moment I feel my fear and my anxiety ratcheting up higher and higher. It's taking too long. We don't have all this time, damn it! Turning to Skye, my expression desperate, I try to figure out another way.

"Skye, please, can't we pop?" I ask her, my fear beginning to eat at me from the inside. Skye only looks at me with a remorseful expression.

"It's not safe, Sookie. The whole area is blown to bits. We could pop right onto a stray sword or an exposed beam." Her reply is filled with logic and sense. We're no good to anyone if we end up getting skewered before we're even fully materialized. But you know what? Fuck logic and sense!

"Then I guess you better stay here." I tell her, turning as fast as my Human legs will carry me and running up behind Pam, letting myself go just like Skye taught me. She must sense it before it happens, but she's not fast enough to stop me.

"Sookie, NO!" Is the last thing I hear as I wrap my arms around Pam, squeezing my front tight to her back. Then I feel my stomach fall into my feet and my ears clog from the pressure.

When the feeling recedes, leaving just a bit of residual dizziness, I spare a single moment to feel relief that I didn't impale us like Skye feared I would. Although if we'd materialized even three inches forward or backward, I'd have a metal beam sticking out of my middle or Pam would have a nice hunk of wood lodged in her foot. I guess Jason's not the only Stackhouse to have lived this long on blind, dumb luck.

Pam looks down for a single second and I notice that, in my haste to take her with me, I ended up not just pressed tightly against her back, but grabbing both of her boobs too. Then she turns around, finally noticing where we are and the reason for my impromptu fondling and her expression is completely shocked.

I see her open and close her mouth several times, not sure how to express what she's feeling, and then she just laughs, one single relieved bark of sound before looking at me with eyes that are almost…affectionate.

"You just had to cop a feel the one time I can't stop to enjoy it?" She says, hand going to her hip, her expression mock exasperated. I give her a chuckle of my own in return.

"It's always just bitch, bitch, bitch with you isn't it, Pam? See if you ever get groped again if that's the thanks I get!"

We both smile at each other for another brief second before turning around. There's no time right now, but even if there was I already know that she's grateful I took her with me to find Eric and she probably knows I'm glad not to face however we find him alone. The words really aren't necessary. Turning in the direction of the Conference room, we both become serious and, with what we see, afraid.

We're about three feet from the Conference room and there, just beyond the blown out doors, is Ilina and a few other Vampires, most of whom belong to us and a few who don't, using fire extinguishers to put out what remains of the flames from the bomb. The sprinkler system is raining a steady spray of water down from the ceiling, helping with the fire but also steadily turning the individual puddles of dead Vampire goo and body parts that litter the floor all around us into a red river of offal and ash, two inches deep.

I don't give any of it more than a cursory glance though. Instead, I search the room frantically, looking for Eric. My heart about falls out of my chest when I see him, tucked into the far corner of the room, his body prone as Ulrich cradles him. Kneeling next to them, at Eric's head, is Godric, who smiles at me, his face showing his relief. Trying to shake away the fact that I'm apparently the only one who sees him, I drag Pam over to Ulrich and Eric. The two of us kneel by his side, opposite Ulrich.

"How…how did you get through?" Ulrich asks, his voice heavy with a kind of grief I can't categorize. If Vampires could be in shock then I'd say that's what he is. I don't bother to answer his question, choosing instead to let Pam fill him in as I turn my attention to Eric, who looks up at me, with barely lucid eyes, and smiles weakly.

"What happened?" I ask, trying hard to keep it together but not really succeeding. Eric takes my hand in his, his movements deliberate and careful, and brings them to rest on his chest, but says nothing, the strain of even that causing his eyes to close in pain. I squeeze his hand hard and bring the other one up to brush the lock of hair from his eyes. Even now it's too stubborn to stay put.

"We were just outside the door when the bomb went off. The wall managed to shield us from the worst of the blast: the Vampires inside were mostly completely incinerated by it." Ulrich answers slowly. "But the Conference room doors broke apart from the force of the explosion and..." Ulrich stops speaking at that point, instead choosing to lift Eric up a little more, slowly and gently, so that Pam and I can see his back.

There, sticking just a few inches out of his left side, is a large, thick piece of the wooden door, now a perfect stake protruding from him. I hear Pam beside me let out a keening cry and, when I look up at her, I see that her tears are flowing again. Big, thick drops of crimson fall from her huge, blue eyes and land on her hands where they grasp Eric's leg. I feel helpless and stupid all at the same time right now. I understand that Eric is in a great deal of pain and I realize it's a gruesome sight, but I don't understand why Pam's or Ulrich's reactions should be so dire.

"So, pull it out!" I say to Ulrich with a great deal less respect than I know I should be showing him, especially in front of both Eric and Godric. But I can't stop myself from feeling totally enraged that he's just sitting there, looking heartbroken and sorry and so damn young and vulnerable, as though he really were just a helpless teenager, when he should be fucking DOING something! Ulrich's response is to look at me as though he can't bear destroy my innocent hope.

"It's lodged next to his heart. If we move it even a millimeter accidentally it will pierce the organ." I try to keep myself from losing it completely at his words and hyperventilating. No, I don't accept that!

"Sookie, it's alright. There isn't a choice. I asked Ulrich to wait as long as possible hoping that I could see you and Pam before…." It's Eric speaking now, his agonizing, whispered words trailing off into nothing before finishing his thought. They make zero sense to me.

"What do you mean 'See Pam and I before…? Before what?" My question aimed at no one specifically.

"We have to pull it out. There's no other choice. He can't stay like this, he can't even move." Pam says, her voice stricken. Suddenly it hits me why they're all like this.

"But you just said if you move it he'll probably die." I whisper, the words trying to stick in my throat, attempting to refuse to come out. Pam and Ulrich just nod in response.

Eric squeezes my hand weakly, trying to comfort me, knowing that I finally understand, and begins to speak to them both in hushed tones, telling them things he probably never would if he weren't faced with the his imminent demise. I don't hear any of it. I can't. I can't hear it. I can't believe it. I refuse to.

Barely three weeks. I've barely had him for three weeks. He can't leave me now! We're supposed to have centuries together! I don't even realize that my tears have joined Pam's until they begin to hit my hands, falling in a cascade down my cheeks and onto the fingers that are entwined with Eric's. It's only then that I realize someone else is speaking too, someone that only I can hear, and I look up.

"You are the only one who can save him, Sookie." Godric says, his form shimmering just beyond my love's head, his voice soft but filled with command. "You must save him."

"How?" I whisper, even though I shouldn't have bothered. Nobody else is paying attention me at this point.

"You know how." He says. I try to stifle my anger at his response. This isn't the time for his enigmatic spirit routine. But it's also not the time for a Stackhouse temper tantrum either. Having said what he needed to say to Ulrich and Pam, Eric turns his eyes to me.

"I'm sorry, lover." He says, giving my hand another pathetic squeeze. I just shake my head at him.

"Don't," I plead with him, "I told you not to say goodbye to me!" From behind him Godric rises, walking over to me and kneeling right beside me, between Pam and me. I vaguely see Eric's eyes widen and I realize that I'm not the only one who can see Godric now.

"Sookie, there is little time, do what must be done." Godric commands again, prompting me with his tone but without really saying anything of use. This time I get so angry I can't help but yell at him.

"Godric, if you know what I'm supposed to do then fucking spit it out! I don't have time for your cryptic Vampire ghost bullshit right now!" I scream at what, to everyone else, must appear to be thin air. I only distantly notice Pam and Ulrich and the other Vampires in the room all staring at me as though I've lost my mind. Who knows, maybe I have, it's beside the point right now. If it means Godric will tell something useful, I'll be happy to be Crazy Sookie even in a bombed out room full of Vampires.

Godric only smiles at me and that's it: I just lose it, which, of course, is what he wanted, cause apparently EVERYONE, even the no longer living, understand that the trick to my powers is getting me angry, or threatening Eric's life, both of which are happening right here, right now. I feel my body spark to life, beginning to glow like a Christmas tree in the dim space and with my "fairyness" comes "Fairy Sookie's instincts" and then I understand.

Pushing a shocked Ulrich away with more strength than I thought I possessed, I take Eric completely into my embrace and, before any of them can ask me what's happening or move to stop the obviously unhinged Human, I feel my gut start to churn again and my body start to move from the inside out and then the bottom drops out of me and I disappear, with Eric.

When we materialize just a few feet away, near where Pam and I popped earlier, Eric looks green all the way to the gills and stunned, but where the wooden stake was sticking out of his back, there's nothing more than a gaping, bloody hole now.

My poor love sputters and coughs a frightening amount of blood, but looks up at me completely astonished. I teleported the both of us, but not the piece of wood that was lodged inside of him. I just look at him and laugh, the sound of it completely effing insane (since there's no point in pretending to any of these people I'm not anymore), but ask me if I give a single flying fuck. I don't, he's alive; that's all that matters. Without saying anything first, I lower him completely to the wet, dirty floor.

"You still weigh a ton." I say, not anymore compos mentis than I was moments ago. Eric just laughs, the sound turning into another gurgled cough of blood as he does, and from behind us I can hear the sounds of footsteps approaching. I know there isn't any more time to waste and I decide that I'll ask him later on why it always seems that our life or death crises end with us practically having public sex. For the moment though I just climb on top of him, cradling the back of his head in my hands and bringing his face to the crook of my neck.

Eric is strong enough, now that the stake is gone, to drop his fangs and they pierce me frantically, but not painfully – never painfully - as he starts to drink. I hold onto him with all of my strength, letting the feel of him taking life from me bring me comfort after I had been all but convinced I was about to lose him.

After a few moments, Eric's body responds to mine and I feel him go from laying limply beneath me to wrapping his own arms around my middle, holding me firmly as I straddle him, his hips bucking up into mine rhythmically. It feels like pure bliss and, as his fangs retract from me, the need for blood replaced by the need for sex, I find the little part of me that's always demanding modesty in these situations packing her bags and getting ready to take a hike, her parting words something about plausible deniability since she didn't actually see the people behind us.

"Well at least I get a show today. After groping me and then leaving me flat it's the least I deserve." The snarky voice of Pam behind me causes my modesty to drop her bags, with a put upon sigh, and postpone her hike. Pulling away from Eric with a little bit of difficulty, I stand and offer him my hand to 'help' him as well.

When he's on his feet again, his eyes still dazed with lust and a good deal of confusion, Ulrich and Pam all but knock him back to the ground with the force of their embraces. Pam's comes first and it's the biggest emotional display I've ever seen from her, as she literally throws herself in Eric's arms, wrapping herself around him like a barnacle and letting go of a few more, now happy, tears. Eric hugs her back gingerly, but I can see the affection for his child shining in his eyes.

After Pam finally lets him go, Ulrich is next, clasping Eric in a manly hug that's full of back clapping (gently on Ulrich's side, in deference to the rapidly healing stake wound Eric just took) and chest thumping. When Ulrich releases Eric the smaller man turns him unceremoniously and we all get a look at the big, round, pinkish scar that's already fading from view.

All three Vampires look at me astonished and I just shrug, not really able to explain what took me or what told me that popping us was the thing to do, and not honestly caring right now either. Stepping away from his granddad and his child, Eric takes me back in his arms, his face a mask of astonishment.

"My wife," he whispers in my ear as he engulfs me again, "my beautiful, amazing, perfect wife." I bury my head in his chest, nuzzling against 'my spot', and hold him back just as tightly.

"My husband." I reply, my deliriously happy words muffled against his once again whole body, "my beautiful, perfect, alive husband."

Just before we turn back to the others, I see the shimmering form of Godric standing in front of the Conference room. He smiles at both Eric and I and nods his head.

"I'm glad you decided to look after him after all. Thank you." With that, Godric's form disappears and it's just me and the more traditionally undead once more. I feel Eric's questioning gaze burning a hole through the top of my head but ignore it for now, choosing to just hug him a little tighter instead.

We spend the next hour or so digging from our end while the Vampires on the other side of the debris keep working as well. I take a moment, as they do, to feel thankful that I'm the only one that needs to use the small amount of oxygen trapped in here with us, cause after everything that's happened tonight, I'm just too exhausted to pop back.

When we finally reach the other side, all of us are eager to get the hell outta here, we leave the rapidly collapsing building to fall in on itself and make our way back to Bettmeralp in near silence.

As I sit in the car, my arms still wrapped securely around Eric, pretty sure that I will NEVER let him any farther from me than he is right now, I try to block out all the questions that are swimming in my head. Questions about what happened tonight, about what will change now that the Authority is gone and about if I'll ever see home again. They'll be important later, but right now all I need is in my arms, beautiful, ancient, strong and, blissfully, still undead.


	20. Chapter 20

_**A/N:**__ Wow, the end. _

_I left this one kind of open ended because I see one more story in all of this and I want to return to it at some point in the future, but also please don't be upset at Sookie for her choice. I kinda ham-fisted myself in the 1__st__ chapter of 'the choice' back when I thought I was just writing a one shot (foolish, silly Wylis) and had Claudine show Sookie a future with Eric where they were at Fangtasia and he was still a Sheriff, so that's my fault! _

_THANK YOU ALL so much for reading this story, reviewing it, alerting it and favoriting it. It means the world to me and I can never tell you how grateful I am._

_And of course thank you to my kick ass, awesome-as-all-get-out beta ,Sheknitsnicely. You don't just correct my grammar you keep me honest about where my plots are going and never fail to lift my spirits when I'm becoming and whiney, emo wussy! I love you for it! I couldn't wish for a better beta even with a genie and a lamp!_

_**Disclaimer:**__ it was so nice to pretend that we could have justice for the many MANY crimes AB committed against Eric and Sookie last season, but alas he still owns them. _

Vadstena, Sweden

Two weeks later:

The automatic window shades locking down are my first clue that sunset is only a scant half hour away. Looking to my left I see Skye adjusting the straps of her bikini as she picks herself up from her beach lounger, grabbing her towel up and shaking it out as she does.

It might not be the beach, but Ulrich and Idonea's pool room (which is the size of a freaking football stadium and filled with sand, an Olympic sized wave pool and lit by realistic, high powered lamps that not only emulate the sun at high noon, but bake a mean tan too) is about as close as you can get to it in Sweden, in the middle of the glacially cold, Nordic winter and I'm not one to look a gift vacation in the mouth.

After we returned to Bettmeralp the night of the revolt, I learned that, much like a good party, the clean-up from a major coup was almost as much work as the actual coup itself. And just like a party, you had less hands to do the clean-up than made the mess.

The first question on everyone's minds, to paraphrase, was "what the fuck just happened?" It turned out to be a question our one surviving prisoner was ideally equipped to answer. The Vampire who fought Sigmund, the one who I thought had the detonator and who fled the room just minutes before the explosion was, in a perfect twist of irony, the same Vampire who, once a sheriff, betrayed Sigmund to the Authority and had his Werewolf love killed.

He was also the King of New York's contact within the Authority and the one the former rat of a monarch sold us out to. As it turns out, the King of New York wasn't just weak and cowardly but a total fool as well.

Sebastian Schrader, former Sheriff of Bavaria and one of the ten true members of the Authority's ruling council, did not take the information King Anthony gave him to his fellow Authority members, but kept it to himself, creating an elaborate scheme that would take out not only the revolting factions within the Vampire world but his fellow Authority members as well, leaving him as the last remaining member of their ranks and the supreme leader of the Vampire world.

His plan had been simple. Keep his mouth shut about the planned revolt. Let the Vampires who backed Ilina make their attack. Wire the Authority meeting building with explosives and then, when everyone was in the same room at the same time, blow the place sky high and walk away unscathed and holding absolute power. Whether it would have worked is another thing entirely, but that was his plan.

It had taken significantly longer to get Schrader to crack than it had the King of New York, but since everyone would soon believe he had perished along with the others, time was on our side. Three nights later, missing all his limbs and a good many of his internal organs, at Ilina and Ulrich's hands, he confessed everything.

I wouldn't have begrudged Eric his right to go down and be part of the 'fun' , especially since he almost lost his existence to all of this, but my Vampire only had one thing on his mind at that point and that was 'thanking' his Fairy for saving his life, in every way, against every surface possible. I'm proud to say that _I_ didn't beg for mercy until night four.

Schrader met his true death at the hands of Ilina, who claimed the right to make the kill on behalf of Sigmund, her friend and second, who didn't survive the explosion. There were many others who met their true deaths that night, but of all of them I mourned Sigmund the most, if only because I know he wanted to die with Schrader at the end of his sword. He wanted to know his enemy hadn't escaped punishment yet again.

The few Authority enforcers who survived, as well as the late King of New York's men, were released the night after the battle, all of them smart enough to be thankful for their lives and, at least so far, to keep their mouths shut in exchange for them.

As of now, the rumors were only just beginning to circulate. The troublesome monarchies in the states, who had been waiting with anxiety to hear what the Authority had decided to do with them, had only just begun to wonder out loud why there was no word yet about matters that should have been decided nights ago.

Eric believed it might be as much as a few months before people really started to believe that something had happened to the Authority, but however long it took, Eric warned, we would know when the blood began to flow.

The Authority had been created just over four hundred years ago, barely the blink of an eye to many Vampires, to bring order and stability to their world. Before them, Vampire monarchs couldn't exist peacefully together. There had been so much fighting, one monarch waging war against another for territory, power and wealth, that their world had always been in a constant state of upheaval.

Now that they were gone, Eric believed it would start again. Especially since many of the monarchs that had been raised in the last four centuries were nothing more than weak puppets, loyal and dependent on the Authority to hold their thrones. As soon as they realized they were free, they would begin to fight each other again, and the Vampire world would once again devolve into a Darwinian 'survival of the fittest' (Eric's words not mine).

It was a frightening prospect, one that neither of us would have signed on for if we'd been given a true choice, but there it was. We'd done what we had to do to stay alive and, even though I had never been an 'ends justify the means' kind of girl, I wouldn't trade sitting by this pool for being an Authority lab rat and having my husband murdered in front of my eyes.

I had become a bonafide member of the Supernatural world now and I knew the rules were different. Nothing that had happened would keep my conscience up at night and, as long as that stayed the case, I'd roll with what came my way. My Gran and her good opinion had always been my moral compass and, even though I'd done some pretty heavy things in the last couple of weeks, I didn't think she'd fault me for any one of them. Gran would have done anything to protect her family and so had I.

"Sookie, are you coming?" Skye asks me, one eyebrow raised in question, as she picks up her now packed pool bag and slings it over her shoulder. I just smile at her ruefully.

"Sorry, I must have gotten a little more 'sun' than I thought. My brain is kinda fried right now." I answer her, picking myself up out of my own chair and starting to pack my things. Skye and I follow what's become our routine over the last several weeks, walking together from the pool room to our respective bedroom doors and parting with big smiles and knowing looks until we meet up for dinner several, happy, sweaty, exhausting-in-the-best-possible-way, hours later. I don't know what the future holds for all of us yet, but I have no doubt now that Skye will be a part of it and I couldn't be happier about that; for me and for Pam.

When I enter our room, I find Eric awake already, as it's now only several minutes until sundown, but instead of being attacked at the door (his favorite evening greeting) or finding him spread out naked and hard as steel, posing in any number of panty-drenching positions on top of the covers of our bed (his second favorite evening greeting), I find him sitting by the fire in a pair of silk pajama bottoms, contemplating his phone.

"Honey, what's the matter?" I say after a few moments, when it becomes clear he's distracted enough that he still hasn't noticed I'm in the room.

Eric looks up at me and his face breaks into a momentary smile as he sends me waves of love through our bond, but his usual lust is noticeably dimmed. It makes me just a tad bit worried. Eric must feel it because he holds out his hand to me and, when I cross the room to take it, he pulls me firmly into his lap, his head burying itself into 'his spot' against my neck and his arms banding around me possessively and protectively all at once. After a few minutes of breathing me in, he shifts slightly so that we can look at each other's faces.

"Nothing is the matter, per se, but I received a text message from the states some hours after the sun had come up here today, which requires a timely answer." He starts. Instead of elaborating he hands me his phone, the text message still on his screen. It's brief and to the point.

The new King of Louisiana, Peter Threadgill, is pleased to hear that the rumors of Eric's demise have been much exaggerated and would be more than happy to offer him his former position as Sheriff of Louisiana's area five, effective upon Eric's return and swearing of fealty to the new monarchy.

"Are we going back then?" I ask him, after re-reading the message a few more times. Eric looks at me, his expression neutral.

"That is entirely up to you, Sookie." He says, his arms tightening around me. "Ulrich and Idonea have offered us a permanent place here if we should want it. Ulrich lost many men in the fight and needs to replace one of his lieutenants.

If what I believe is going to happen happens, we would be safe here. Ulrich and Idonea have held Scandinavia for a millennium; others would be foolish to try and challenge them and most know it, but if they were challenged they would hold their thrones, of that I have no doubt.

Threadgill, on the other hand, is a weak king. His monarchy held for the same reason as many others: the Authority wished it so. Without their backing, he might be seen as an easy target.

But the fact remains that, wherever we choose to go, troubled times are coming and I know that you would miss your home and your family and friends. The decision rests with you, Sookie. Wherever you go, I will follow. Wherever _we _go, I will do all that I can to make you safe. You are my home, lover, my own personal piece of heaven on this earth and your happiness is my greatest desire." Eric falls silent then, and the only sound in the room is my gulp of indecision. As soon as we arrived in Sweden, I'd phoned home to tell Jason and my friends that I was alive and safe and to apologize for skipping town again without a word.

Their reactions were mixed. Jason was just happy to hear from me and, in a moment of clarity I wouldn't have expected from my brother, he told me that he was just happy, no matter what I'd gotten up to, that Eric kept me safe.

Lafayette and Jesus were also relieved to hear from me and, with their knowing a little bit more of the world, they just told me they wanted to cook me breakfast when I got back and get caught up on all the gossip. Both conversations, though short, gave me the strength I needed to make the other calls on my list.

Sam had railed, as Sam always does, about me being in the middle of Vampire shit and it had come to verbal blows as he tried to fire me and I resoundingly quit. Since I'd barely worked at Merlotte's for two weeks put together over the last two years, I couldn't really blame him for it, but it had hurt just the same. Sam had always been my favorite boss and I'd counted him as one of my few true friends. I hoped that, given some time to cool off, he would calm down and hopefully we could be friends again, but if he didn't, I would accept that too. I'd chosen my place in this world and it wasn't beside him.

Tara hadn't given me a happy greeting either, though if truth be told, things hadn't been good between us since she'd sided with Antonia during the whole witch debacle, so I wasn't surprised when she had nothing nice to say.

Alcide had been cool but friendly and I sensed that, even though he'd openly offered to dump Debbie for me not a month before, he was affected by her death just the same and blamed me for the things that had happened. After all, I was deeply, deeply involved with Eric and Pam and it had been Pam who'd put a silver bullet between Debbie's eyes. I hoped, again, that with time I might be able to mend that friendship, but right now it wasn't looking good.

It begs the question, what do I really have to return to? The answer that comes back to me, sadly, is 'not much'. But the thought of never visiting Gran's grave again, of never setting foot in the farmhouse that's been the center of my world for as long as I can remember, causes me real pain. My Gran left it to me because she didn't trust Jason to understand its importance to our family or to keep it up and, given that Jason sold it without much thought when I was in Faery, she was proved right. I turn to Eric, knowing that I'm making the selfish decision but not feeling like I can really make any other, and sigh resignedly.

"I'd like to go home." I answer him, my voice just above a whisper. Eric nods and, from our bond, I can tell he isn't upset or surprised by my answer.

"Then home we go, lover." He says, kissing the tip of my nose, before picking up his cell phone again and tapping off a quick reply to Threadgill. "If all goes well we'll leave the night after tomorrow." He says, after hitting the send button. I just nod my head before laying it on his shoulder.

"Will you be sad to leave?" I ask timidly. Eric shakes his head in response.

"No. I'm regretful that we couldn't take a trip to my ancestral home in Oland, though. Pam is quite fond of the place." He chuckles, the sound dripping in sarcasm, telling me that the exact opposite is true. "But otherwise... no. I love being here and I enjoy seeing Ulrich and Idonea whenever I can, but my life has been in Louisiana for the past half century and, even though I would not hesitate to pick up and leave any place if I felt our safety was compromised, I admit to being fond of the place. After all, I found the world's greatest treasure hidden there," he says, his voice turning dark and deep as he caresses my face with his huge hand, "and you know how Vikings love to discover beautiful, new and exciting things."

With that, Eric picks me up, unceremoniously ripping away the modest little cover up I'd thrown over my bikini before leaving the pool, and tosses me on the bed. Our conversation finished and our decision made, there's now only one thing on his mind and if I couldn't tell what it was through our bond, where his previously muted lust is dialing up by the second, or from the look on his face, the alp sized tent in his sexy, silk pants would give it away all on its own. I'm just about to open my arms to him when I feel the telltale signs of an unexpected deterrent.

"Oh honey, we can't!" I say, my face turning about a zillion different shades of red.

"Yes we can." He says, ripping away his sleep pants and giving my modesty's resolve a big hit right where she lives.

"No honey, you don't understand, I'm…well I have…. The thing is, I'm pretty sure I'm starting my…." Oh lord, how many things have I done with this man? How many naked, sweaty, depraved acts have I eagerly allowed him to teach me, and I still can't say it?

"You're beginning your courses." My eyes all but bug out of my head at his matter-of-fact stating of the problem. "I know, I've been smelling its onset for several days now." I think I'm probably discovering a few new shades of red as his words sink themselves into my brain.

"Oh sweet baby Jesus, just come take me now!" I whisper, my mortification complete as he snickers at my scandalized expression. Not giving me the chance to think anymore, probably worried that, if given enough lead time, I'll run into the bathroom and lock the door behind me, Eric moves over me faster than my eyes can track.

Taking the straps of my bikini bottom in his hand and tugging till they collapse in on themselves, leaving us without any barrier between our lower bodies, he dips his head and inhales a huge lung full of Sookie scented air. I see his eyes roll back in his head and his whole body shiver slightly as my scent works its way into his lungs and I shamefully admit to feeling my resolve crumble just a little bit. The evidence of it is painfully obvious as my pussy begins to glisten in the soft light of the room.

"You smell mouthwatering, lover. Your essence is even stronger than normal. I wouldn't let you go even if you begged and screamed for mercy right now, although I encourage you to attempt it anyway." With that, Eric gently but firmly wrenches my legs apart and plants himself between them, his head diving to my center.

The first swipe of his tongue along my slit is my final undoing and my modesty throws up her hands and abandons me. If I could form words right now, I'd tell her not to let the door hit her on the way out. Instead, my hands fist into his hair as my hips begin their familiar movements, riding his tongue like it's the best ride at the county fair.

Instead of devouring me whole, like I would have expected, Eric takes one of his arms from my thighs and clamps it down over my stomach, holding me still and at his mercy, while he starts to sip me like an exotic wine, taking his time and savoring each drop of me on his tongue.

I cry out as I feel him lap gently at my lips, being driven insane by the almost sweet sensation of his mouth on me, but needing more. Sensing my desperation Eric uses the fingers of the hand still holding my thigh to spread my slick outer folds wide and begins to dip his tongue in and out of my aching entrance, coaxing each drop of my blood and arousal from me and swirling them together.

The panting cries that escape me are hardly audible over the noises of absolute bliss that Eric makes as he enjoys me in this whole new way and, when I dimly notice his hips moving against the sheets of the bed, I decide that modesty has zero place between us. Nothing that makes us both so happy can possibly be wrong.

Just as I have that thought, I feel one of Eric's fingers begin to thrum over my clit and that's all it takes. Without warning, I'm screaming and bucking against him, despite the restraint of his arm, calling out for God and all the angels to come and save me. But of course they don't and all I hear, as I try to come back to myself, is the low growl of Eric's voice in my ear as he picks me up and presses my back against the ornate wooden headboard, holding my entire body off the bed by his arms and coming to kneel underneath me.

"He can't save you from me, nothing can." Eric says wickedly, his eyes, when they swim into my still blurred vision, inky blue with his passion and drunk from my blood. "I suggest you begin praying to me for salvation instead." With that, he uses all his strength to slam me down onto his waiting cock and I cry out as I feel myself impaled by the hard, completely unforgiving steel.

From that moment on, Eric is in complete control of my body lifting me up, as though I'm little more than a rag doll, and dropping me back down onto his hardness savagely, over and over again. As he does, his eyes hold mine prisoner. The look he gives me is one I've seen before. It's the look that used to terrify me, the one that kept me from ever truly believing that we could be together. It speaks of his dark, instinctive drive to possess me, own me, make me his, to swallow me whole and never let me go.

I used to be frightened that, if I gave myself to him, I would drown in that passion that I see in his eyes. It would sweep me away and, when he had his fill and abandoned me, there would be nothing left of me afterward. Now I know differently. That look, his love, it was never a threat. It was a challenge and it's one that I will never back down from again.

Lifting my arms from their place, limp over his shoulders, I grab his head in my hands and kiss him ferociously. I can still taste my blood and my desire on his lips and tongue, but I don't care. If anything, they make me even more frenzied. I want him to know that, as fiercely and as ferociously as he loves me, I love him too.

A part of me has always wanted him, from the very beginning. I've cared for him for longer than I would like to admit, given that I was with another when it started, and I've loved him, truly and completely, for only a short time, but on those nights before and during our fight with the Authority something changed in me.

I didn't just accept a part of Eric, I accepted a part of myself too: a large part of me that I'd been denying. That part of me is the part that's always belonged to him and with him from the very beginning. That part is his perfect mate, completely and utterly, and it's that part of me that cries out in absolute abandon as Eric brings us both to edge of oblivion once more. It's her that flings herself off the cliff, biting into his shoulder just as he roars in pleasure, and takes all of him, willingly, desperately, happily, ecstatically into her.

The bite I vaguely feel on my own shoulder completes our circle and, as we drink from each other, extending our bliss, I feel that complete oneness that I never knew existed before him. We will live. We will thrive. We will conquer any enemy foolish enough to challenge us and we will survive

I will never let anything take him away from me or me from him. It's a promise I made not so long ago, but that's already been tested more times than I would like. It makes no difference though, it never will. I am his and Eric is mine. Let the world, any part of it, attempt to try at their own peril.


End file.
